If you could invite three MBL scientists or community members (living or past) to dinner, who would you choose and what would you talk about?
I would pick E.B. Wilson (1856-1939) first. Wilson was a cell biologist, embryologist, apparently a wonderfully nice man, and an excellent cellist. So you get a lot of things in one person, there. I would like to talk to him about how he did his work.
The others would be Cornelia Clapp and Ernest Everett Just, because they were both clearly talented scientists who did interesting work, but clearly could have done so much more. So I would like to know: What was life like for them? What kept them from doing the work that they each said they really wanted to do?
Cornelia Clapp—now with an MBL auditorium named for her—came to Woods Hole every year; she did research on toadfish and other embryos at MBL. She taught at Mount Holyoke during the year and brought her students here, but while at Mount Holyoke, she didn't have a way to do much research. Career options for a woman in the early 20th century kept her from doing as much as she would have liked. She mostly didn't publish her later work, but she continued her research at MBL. What was she doing when she was at MBL after the first years, and was still working in the lab but not publishing it?
And then for Just, what was it like at the MBL? What was it like in other places he spent time? He commented often that as a Black man, he couldn't find a comfortable place in the scientific world despite going off to Europe and later coming back to the U.S. Clearly it was difficult for him in a lot of ways. I would love to talk to him about what was making him feel excluded and what we could do to change things. Talking to Wilson, Clapp, and Just could help get insight into what it is that makes people feel included or excluded. We all talk about inclusion these days, but what did that feel like to people who we know in hindsight were really talented?
What impact has your affiliation with the MBL had on your career or life?
There are just so many things about the MBL, and what makes it the MBL. Every year you meet new people and hear about new ideas and new ways of doing science. Watching the old classics die away is really sad too, though. Now, a lot of people who were great and were always here, Gerry Weissmann and others, are not here anymore.
For me, there’s also the personal part: MBL is a place where I can get out of Arizona in the summer and come be cool, be outdoors, and interact with so many interesting people doing so many intriguing things. It's such a welcoming place where I can go in the archives and library and write stuff and have a great time.
Aside from the personal things, there’s a practical side. At one point, a prior MBL director invented this category called MBL Fellow, and I was named one. Being listed as a Fellow really helps me get NSF grants, for example—and we've gotten quite a few, probably $2.5 million in grants that I brought to the MBL. The work is all related to the MBL, so I wouldn’t get the funding anyplace else. And my amazing president Michael Crow at Arizona State University says, “Go do your work at MBL. It has good impact, you’re reaching a lot of people, you’re taking grad students with you, keep doing it.”
Outside of your work, what are your passions?
What is work? Mostly I do what others might call “work” all the time and enjoy it. I love teaching. I try to facilitate opportunities for other people. I see people like MBL Director of Research Anne Sylvester—I think she's phenomenally wonderful, because she's constantly helping other people figure out how to navigate things and making the world easier and better for their work and careers. It's inspiring. I admire that, and I try to do that. I also love working with the MBL Library staff, Jen Walton and Matt Person and Samantha Porter, who are so helpful and get engaged in projects. Most recently, Safety Officer Eric Jensen has been working with our history team making truly inspiring videos, which will be coming soon to a theater near you (probably the Cornelia Clapp Auditorium).
But I do take two vacations a year: one week to Santa Fe for the opera and food, and one week to the Tetons for hiking and food. But mostly, it's just continuing to do research and writing and thinking, along with other people. That isn’t really work.