FRONTIERS BYU COLLEGE COLLEGE OF OF PHYSICAL PHYSICAL & & MATHEMATICAL MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES SCIENCES .. FALL FALL 2014 2014 BYU
EVOLVING EVOLVING ROLES ROLES
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SolvingSocial SocialInjustice Injustice Solving 18 p.p.18 GivingBack BackininGhana Ghana Giving 22 p.p.22 From Streets Stokholm Thethe Making of to a Scientist 24 p.p.24
FRONTIERS MAGAZINE
How Much Do You Really Know About CPMS?
BYU College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences Scott D. Sommerfeldt, Dean Thomas W. Sederberg, Associate Dean Bart J. Kowallis, Associate Dean Kurt D. Huntington, Assistant Dean
Department Chairs Gregory F. Burton, Chemistry & Biochemistry Michael A. Goodrich, Computer Science John H. McBride, Geological Sciences Robin O. Roundy, Mathematics Blake E. Peterson, Mathematics Education Richard R. Vanfleet, Physics & Astronomy H. Dennis Tolley, Statistics
Frontiers Production Bart J. Kowallis, Editorial Director D. Lynn Patten, Assistant Editorial Director Aimee Robbins, Managing Editor Ye Liang, Graphic Designer BYU Photography Josh Siebert, Photographer Caroline Smith, Writer Meg Monk, Writer Mackenzie Brown, Writer Madison Parks, Writer
Contact Information D. Lynn Patten, Marketing Manager 801.422.4022, lynn_patten@byu.edu
PHOTOS: cover and right, Josh Sibert
Brent C. Hall, LDS Philanthropies 801.422.4501, brenth@byu.edu
During your time at BYU, you probably spent countless hours on the 560,626 square footage of campus that is dedicated to CPMS buildings, but what do you know about CPMS? Here are some facts you might not have known: The Physical Science Building was built in 1950. In 1954 it was named the Carl F. Eyring Physical Science Center (ESC). The ESC was the first building on campus to have an elevator. BYU’s original Summerhay’s Planetarium, the first in Utah, opened in 1958. In 2005 is was updated and renamed the Royden G. Derrick Planetarium in 2005 for Elder Derrick. His son and daughter-in-law made possible the planetarium’s specialized 3D start projector and state-of-the-art acoustics. 1 million disposable gloves are sold each year by the Chemistry Central Stockroom. That’s enough gloves to put on all the hands of a capacity crowd at LaVell Edwards football stadium, seven times over. It takes the Nicholes Building 30 seconds to have its fire-suppression system completely fill a room with foam. The Talmage Building was the first building on campus with an earthquake-resistant design. As of June 2014, there are 11,167 undergraduate and 2,409 graduate CPMS alumni. In winter 2014, there were 2,215 undergraduate and 286 graduate students enrolled in CPMS classes.
DEAN’S MESSAGE
There are many things people can do with what they’ve learned: find a job, teach a child, or invent something new. Students in this college have had the chance to receive a high-quality education and to gain the tools necessary for turning that education into opportunities. However, one of the greatest benefits of earning an education is having the opportunity to use that education to serve others.
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In the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, BYU’s motto of “Enter to learn; go forth to serve” is exemplified in faculty members and students alike. Mark Clement (p. 14), from the computer science department, has had the opportunity to “go forth to serve” by sharing his knowledge of computer science as a teacher, mentor, father, and researcher. From the mathematics education department, Kate Johnson (p. 18) uses her knowledge of math to help her students understand social justice. Our college has been blessed to have friends that continue to help the students in our college have the opportunity to gain an education. We have several scholarships and mentorships funded by companies as well as by many individuals and families. We express our thanks to so many of you who support us and help others succeed. Wherever life takes our CPMS alumni, they can be enriched by the education they have gained. In turn, our alumni can “go forth to serve” others. The College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences aims to help its students and alumni continue to gain that enriching education. We admire the hard work and service of all those within the college. I also would like to encourage each of you to remember that the opportunity for the education of our students can be in part made possible through support they can receive from our endowment funds. See how our fund is growing on p. 13. Wishing you all the best,
Scott Sommerfeldt, Dean
PHOTO: courtesy of BYU Photo
Because of their education and the opportunities that resulted, our alumni have been scattered near and far and into many different careers. Tad Lowder, a graduate of the chemistry department, is a patent attorney for companies exploring new technologies in biochemistry, pharmaceuticals, and sustainable energy. From the computer science department, graduate Per Brandstrom is in Sweden working as an operations development leader and project leader at Volvo Cars. Benjamin Jordan, a graduate of the geology department, is an associate professor of physical science and oceanography at BYU-Hawaii. From the math department, Ron Hilton is an independent patent agent and an inventor with about a dozen patents. Clayton Brown, a graduate of the mathematics education department, is an associate professor at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Brad Moser, an alum of the physics department, uses his physics degree at Belton School District in Missouri where he is a technology integration specialist. From the statistics department, Gary Peterson is the executive vice president of supply chain and production at the O. C. Tanner Company. You can read more about our alumni on p. 6. In a couple of more in-depth articles, you can read how two of our alumni truly serve those around them through their hard work. Matthew Rasband, an alum from the physics department, has used his education to serve, through his research, those with multiple sclerosis and those who have strokes. He has earned two awards for his research on the mechanisms regulating ion channel function in the brain. Read more about his story on p. 8. Another alum who uses his education to serve others is Stephen Manortey, a graduate of the statistics department who is now a teacher. He worked hard to gain an education in his home country of Ghana and eventually came to BYU to further his education. Now Manortey is using that education to serve those in Ghana by giving them opportunities to further their own education. Read his story on p. 22.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PHOTOS: top and bottom, Josh Siebert; middle, courtesy of Stephen Manortey
DEPARTMENTS 6
ALUMNI NEWS
8
ALUM SPOTLIGHT
9
COLLEGE NEWS
10
FACULTY NEWS
11
STUDENT NEWS
12
EVENTS CALENDAR
FEATURES 14
EVOLVING ROLES
18
SOCIAL INJUSTICE
22
CALLED TO SERVE
24
An Unlikely Journey
FROM A TEACHER TO AN ADVOCATE
14 22
TEACHING WORLD PROBLEMS WITH MATH PROBLEMS
GIVING BACK IN GHANA
The Making of a Scientist
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ALUMNI NEWS
AFTER THEIR ALMA MATER Chemistry & Biochemistry 1987 | Ray Helvy (BS ’87, MBA ’92 Brigham Young University; West Valley City, Utah) got his MBA with an emphasis in IT. He served in the military as an IT supervisor and has since retired from the military. 1988 | David Sherwin Peterson (BS ’88 Brigham Young University; DDS ’91 University of Nebraska Medical Center; Orem, Utah) has a private dental practice in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. 2000 | Tad Lowder (BS ’00 Brigham Young University; MD ’04 Western University–College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific; Vancouver, Washington) works for the Legacy Medical Group. He is the site medical director for the Fisher’s Landing Family Medicine Clinic.
Geologic Mapping Program. During that time he has authored or co-authored about forty-five geologic maps and reviewed and supervised the publication of about 400 more. He is currently president of the Utah Geological Association. 1981 | Julie Barrett Willis (BS ’81, MS ’85 Brigham Young University; Idaho), wife of Grant Willis, was appointed chair of the Department of Geology at BYU-Idaho in January 2013. She and Grant are the parents of three children: one on a mission and two who have successful careers of their own—none in geology, though one keeps creeping closer! 1999 | Benjamin R. Jordan (BS ’99 Brigham Young University; Laie, Hawaii) is an associate professor of physical science and oceanography at BYU-Hawaii. His current research involves coastal and volcanic surveys/monitoring and geochemical correlation of volcanic deposits. He is also experimenting with and developing methodologies for using aerial micro-drones to survey a variety of geologic and marine features.
Computer Science 1988 | Eric Kuhnen (BS ’88, MS ’90 Brigham Young University; Bountiful, Utah) is the principal and managing partner of Focal Partners, a technology-based market-research firm in Menlo Park, California. He is a member of Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP).
2001 | Aaron Adams (MS ’01 Brigham Young University; PhD ’05 Texas A&M; Denver, Colorado) has spent almost ten years in the oil and gas industry. He moved to the Anadarko Denver office in 2012, and now works the Niobrara (Unconventional) Exploration in Powder River Basin, Wyoming. He reports that his BYU fieldwork, lab classes, and instrument technology helped prepare him for the type of problems he faces each day.
1992 | Steve Larsen (BS ’92 Brigham Young University; Pocatello, Idaho) holds two positions at ON Semiconductor as the new product development operations manager and as the senior compliance and ethics liaison. In 2014, he was a guest speaker in the Marriott School and talked about compliance and ethics to masters of accounting students.
Mathematics 1978 | Ron Hilton (BS ’78, MSEE ’80 Brigham Young University; Holladay, Utah) is the founder and CEO of Proximal Systems Corporation (PSC), an early-stage software startup. He is also an independent patent agent and an inventor with about a dozen patents.
1992 | Per Brandstrom (BS ’92 Brigham Young University; Gothenburg, Sweden) is an operations development leader and project leader at Volvo Cars. His main responsibility is to build up an in-house organization that delivers infotainment HMI software.
1988 | Melanie Taylor Huff Marcheschi (BS ’88 Brigham Young University; JD ’93 Yale Law School; Bountiful, Utah) has had a busy life raising eight children. She recently began working part-time as a staff attorney in the Real Estate section at Kirton McConkie law firm in Salt Lake City, Utah.
2000 | Jeff Olivier (BS ’00 Brigham Young University; MSC ’02 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Champaign, Illinois) has been a software engineer at Intel since 2002. He works on performance and power monitoring tools for enabling new hardware platforms. On the side, he trained and ran his first marathon in April 2014. 2000 | Sulabh Gupta (BS ’00 Brigham Young University; MBA ’12 California State University; Glendale, California) is a software architect at Paramount Pictures Studios in Hollywood, California. There he implements digital asset management solutions to facilitate effective collaboration on movie or television related workflows by creative teams located worldwide. Geological Sciences 1981 | Grant Willis (BS ’81, MS ’84 Brigham Young University; Idaho) has been a mapping geologist for the Utah Geological Survey for thirty-one years, including twenty years as manager of the
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1989 | Ken Chinen (BS ’89 Brigham Young University; PhD ’00 New Mexico State University; Sacramento, California) is a professor of international business in the College of Business Administration at California State University in Sacramento. His research was published in Competitiveness Review and won the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence in 2013. 1990 | Lance Ward (BS ’90, MS ’92 Brigham Young University; Mesa, Arizona) is a senior lecturer in the School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences at Arizona State University and has taught there for twenty years. He also mentors math tutors and junior faculty members. Mathematics Education 1995 | Tami Conklin (BS ’95 Brigham Young University; Roanoke, Virginia) is using the skills she learned in the mathematics education courses to homeschool her five children.
2000 | Clayton Brown (BS ’00 Brigham Young University; MS ’06 Central Washington University; Orem, Utah) is an associate professor at Utah Valley University in Orem. He joined the Department of Developmental Mathematics faculty in 2002. Physics & Astronomy 1990 | Stephen Beecroft (BS ’90 Brigham Young University; BS ’97 Weber State University; Redmond, Washington) is a technical writer in the Seattle, Washington area. 1996 | Kurt Richter (BS ’96 Brigham Young University; Bountiful, Utah) got a joint JD and MBA in 2000 from the Marriott School and the J. Reuben Clark Law School. After working in the technology and telecommunications industry for several years, he started a business with three other partners. The company is called Lightstream Communications, and it brokers telecommunications service to large enterprise organizations across the country. 2005 | Lauren R. Ard (BS ’05 Brigham Young University; Tucson, Arizona), wife of Jason Ard, hosted a Kickstarter project to design and build a portable planetarium. This planetarium is used to give presentations for schools, libraries, scout troops, and comic conventions throughout southern Arizona. 2006 | Brad Moser (BS ’06 Brigham Young University; MS ’12 University of Missouri-Columbia; Webb City, Missouri) has been a high school physics teacher at Webb City High School in Webb City, Missouri. He won a proposal for developing an educational website for using the iBooks Author app to author iBooks. He also piloted iPads in the science classroom and researched effective strategies to use with them. In July, he started a new job with Belton School District in Belton, Missouri as a technology integration specialist. 2007 | Jason M. Ard (BS ’07 Brigham Young University; Tucson, Arizona), husband of Lauren Ard, is a team lead and simulation software architect at Raytheon Missile Systems. He has authored several papers on modeling and simulation, including an article in the March/April 2014 IEEE Software magazine. Statistics 1986 | Gary Peterson (BS ’86, MS ’88 Brigham Young University; Sandy, Utah) turned his internship with O. C. Tanner Company in Salt Lake City, Utah into a job and has worked there for twenty-six years. He is now the executive vice president of supply chain and production for the company. 1992 | Mike Overson (BS ’92 , MBA ’99 Brigham Young University; Gilbert, Arizona) started his career working in manufacturing quality engineering, but later received his MBA and went into marketing research. He is now a senior research analyst for Arizona Public Service (APS). 2008 | Regis Lefler (BS ’08, MBA ’13 Brigham Young University; Cincinnati, Ohio) is working for Proctor and Gamble (P&G), an American multinational consumer goods company. He does market research and consumer insight work for P&G, specifically Bounty Paper Towels.
MEMORY BYTES In this issue’s Memory Byte, alumnus Stephen Clouse shares his experience of finding his major.
Into the New World By Stephen S. Clouse (Physics and Astronomy, BS ’12, MS Candidate University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign; Savoy, Illinois)
“Business, business, business!” That’s all I seemed to hear from a majority of my friends my first year as an undergraduate student. Many of them had been caught up in the idea that studying business management is the only way you can have a successful career and, sadly, I had been caught up as well. I spent my freshman year taking business prerequisites. Luckily, I also took Physical Science 100, a class required for all non-science majors. The class was amazing—the material was intrinsically interesting. Immediately after grades were posted, I applied to be a teaching assistant for the course and registered for my first physics course. I didn’t realize it then, but now I realize that this was the first step into a new world I had never before considered. From the day I decided that I was going to work in science, my training has given me many opportunities to teach and serve others. My experiences at BYU have laid a foundation preparing me to be an effective researcher and graduate student and will continue to provide me with opportunities as I pursue a career in the United States Air Force.
Have a Memory Byte to Share? Do you remember a time when you spent hours on a homework problem and solved it? Tell us about an “aha!” moment you had as you worked to solve a tough problem during school. Please send your anecdotes (of up to 200 words) to cpms@byu.edu with “Memory Bytes” in the subject line. We’ll publish the best ones in the next issue of Frontiers. Submissions may be edited for length, grammar, appropriateness, and clarity.
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ALUM SPOTLIGHT
RESTORING BRAIN FUNCTION Text: Mackenzie Brown Photo: courtesy of Baylor College of Medicine
Matthew Rasband won two awards for the progress he’s made in neuroscience research.
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provides him with seven years of funding for his research. In addition, the Baylor College of Medicine awarded him with the 2013 Michael DeBakey Excellence in Research Award. This award is given on an annual basis in recognition of excellence and recognizes a scientist who has made the most significant published scientific contribution to clinical or basic biomedical research during the past three years. “These extra funds are extremely valuable since they will allow me to pursue transformational projects that would not otherwise be possible to pursue with more limited amounts of funding,” Rasband said. “The funds allow for the development and execution of long-term, high-risk, high-reward projects.” He is currently working to reduce or even eliminate certain types of damage to the brain by restoring appropriate ion channel function in the brain. Ion channels are key regulators of neuronal and brain activity. “We want to understand the pathological mechanisms that disrupt the ion channel clustering function after disease or injury. By understanding this, we can then identify strategies to preserve ion channel clusters in their proper locations,” Rasband said. “We want to understand the molecular and genetic pathways that are necessary to build these proper domains, with the hope that we can use these same pathways in repairing the nervous system.” In addition to his contributions to basic molecular neuroscience, Rasband has made contributions to the treatment of multiple sclerosis and stroke. He is confident that with more research he and his team will continue to For BYU physics alumnus Dr. Matthew Rasband discover important components of treatments for brain (BS ’94), having a father who was a physics teacher inspired diseases and injuries. him to major in physics and led him later to a career in “The use of K+ channel blockers (like fampridine) was neuroscience. recently approved for use in multiple sclerosis patients,” “I’ve always been very proud that my dad, Neil (Dr. Rasband said. “Some of my work explains and provides Neil Rasband, emeritus professor of physics at BYU), was the scientific rationale for these drugs. In addition, my a scientist,” Rasband said. “As a child I saw him working laboratory recently showed that injuries such as stroke in his office at home writing page after page of equations and nerve crush irreversibly disrupt axonal ion channel that I couldn’t understand. It was as if he inhabited a secret clustering. This is serious because without these clusters world that only he knew about. I knew I wanted to also of channels, neurons don’t function properly.” be a part of that world.” Rasband and his lab showed that in order to preserve Not only has Rasband been a part of that world but he neuron function after stroke, neuroprotective drugs must has also excelled in it. be coupled with other therapies to preserve ion channel Rasband, who has been a professor at Baylor College clustering. of Medicine since 2007, recently won two awards for his “Although we’ve made a lot of progress understanding current research on the mechanisms regulating ion channel some of the molecular mechanisms underlying ion channel function in the brain. clustering in axons, there remain many important questions,” He was nominated for and received the Javits Rasband said. “We want to uncover both common Neuroscience Investigator Award from the National pathological mechanisms of channel dysfunction, as well Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, which as aspects that may be unique to each disease state.”
COLLEGE NEWS
CURRENT HAPPENINGS
New Chairs
Michael Goodrich was recently appointed as chair of the Department of Computer Science with Dan Ventura serving as associate chair. In the Department of Mathematics Education, Blake Peterson was appointed as the new chair and Dan Siebert was reappointed as associate chair.
WOMEN’S CAREER CONVERSATIONS Women undergraduate and graduate students from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) disciplines gathered in the Hinckley Center on February 7, 2014, to hear a panel of diverse women from science and mathematical backgrounds. The four panelists (below) have been successful in a variety of STEM careers and have helped students see what they as women have done with their respective degrees and areas of interest.
BYU Bridge Earlier this year, BYU replaced eRecruiting with a new career and internship placement tool: BYU Bridge. Useful features of the new system include mock interviews, online scheduling with career counselors, an easy-to-navigate interface, profile data brought over from myBYU, and career-finder resources. In addition, company recruiters will be able to search for students by skill as well as by major.
3MT: A New Event to Challenge Students
For the first time at BYU, graduate students had the opportunity to participate in a Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. Graduate students presented their theses in just three minutes to a panel of judges and a live audience. Two winners from each college competition advanced to the university-wide competition. Conrad Rosenbrock, a physics student, took second place at the university level.
STUDENT RESEARCH CONFERENCE GROWS
Calculus: The Musical!
On March 15, 2014, the 28th annual Student Research Conference (SRC) hosted over 400 student presentations on everything from chemo-resistance in cancer to hive mind in honeybees. SRC provides students the opportunity to practice their presentations skills in a conference setting similar to professional conferences. Hundreds of students walked away with valuable experience from the opportunity to learn and demonstrate presentation skills, which are critical in both academic and industrial fields.
New CVLC members
Brooke Anderson
Calculus: The Musical! came to BYU to put the formulas and principles of calculus to comedic song and dance. The idea for the musical originally came from a high school lesson plan of Marc Gutman, a teacher in Minnesota. He co-created the musical with Sadie Bowman. The BYU mathematics department was excited to host this musical to reach out to high school students and strengthen bonds with them. PHOTOS: top, Josh Siebert; bottom, BYU Photo
From left to right, Vicky Thomas (Adobe), Allie Tomlinson (BYU Actuarial Science Board), Summer Rupper, PhD (BYU Department of Geological Sciences), and Felicia Marshall (NOV Intelliserv).
CPMS welcomes eight new members to the College Volunteer Leadership Council: Mike and Rachel Jacobson, Brad Buckwalter, Matthew Henrichsen, Jai Lee, Brian Martini, Tim Stratford, and Keith Wootan.
NEW STAFF CPMS welcomes Brooke Anderson, the new assistant director of the advisement center. Previously, she worked on campus at Graduate Services where her passion for helping students grew. Anderson is excited to continue that passion at this new position. CPMS is grateful for all the hard work the previous assistant director, Darlene Wangsgaard, has done and for the cheerful guidance she provided CPMS students.
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FACULTY NEWS
GREAT LEADERSHIP, TEACHING, AND RESEARCH CPMS Faculty Continue Achieving
CHEMISTRY & BIOCHEMISTRY In Remembrance: Coran LoVell Cluff passed away Sunday, March 30, 2014 in Fredonia, Arizona. Cluff worked as a chemistry professor at BYU from 1962 until his retirement in the mid 1990s. He was an active member of the Central Utah Section of the American Chemical Society, and he was highly respected by his students, who said he was the best teacher but the toughest. Award: Matthew Linford has been awarded the honor of being a Fellow of the American Vacuum Society (AVS). This award recognizes members of the society who have made sustained and outstanding technical contributions in areas of interest to AVS. Award: Milton Lee has been awarded the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award from LCGC Europe (liquid chromatography gas chromatography) for his exceptional contributions to hyphenated chromatographic techniques and his distinguished work in the international separation science community. New Faculty: Kara Stowers received her bachelor’s degree at the University of Utah in chemistry. Since then, she was awarded master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan in organic chemistry and worked as a postdoctoral research scientist at Harvard University. Her research specializes in catalysis, organic chemistry, and mechanism. New Faculty: Rebecca Sansom went to Boston University for her bachelor’s degree and then received a master’s degree in educational leadership from Southern Utah University. She also earned a master’s degree in chemistry and chemistry biology from Harvard. Retirement: John D. Lamb, the Eliot A. Butler Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has retired after teaching and researching at BYU for thirty-six years. Lamb, who joined the BYU faculty in 1978,
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was recently honored with the Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty award. During retirement, Lamb intends to pursue his love of painting and gardening and enjoy his grandchildren.
Retirement: Wayne Barrett has retired after teaching, researching, and mentoring at BYU for thirty-three years. Barrett, who joined BYU’s math faculty in 1981, is looking forward to pursuing many other interests, including serving a mission, working on his family COMPUTER SCIENCE history, and traveling, as well as continuing Research: Mike Jones and his students have to learn about mathematics. developed a system to project sign language narration onto several types of glasses—in- New Faculty: Benjamin Webb received cluding Google Glass. Jones’ team originally his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from researched the technology for planetarium Brigham Young University. Later he earned a shows; however, the team is also working master’s degree there as well and attended the with researchers at Georgia Tech to explore Georgia Institute of Technology for his PhD. signglasses as a literacy tool. MATHEMATICS EDUCATION GEOLOGY Research: This last winter, Blake Peterson Award: Jani Radebaugh was honored for her traveled to Japan to join Doug Corey and their valuable contribution to BYU through the Fac- Japanese compatriots for a research project. ulty Women’s Association Scholarship Award. Their current research takes the principles that Since coming to BYU, she has authored or co- the experienced Japanese teachers focused on authored thirty-seven papers in top-tier jour- as they worked with the student teachers and nals, including Science, Icarus, and Geophysical is further refining what they believe to be the Research Letters. characteristics of high-quality mathematics instruction for teachers. In Remembrance: Dr. Lehi Ferdinand Hintze passed away Tuesday, July 1, 2014 in Provo, PHYSICS Utah. He was a professor of geology at Oregon Award: William Strong, an emeritus faculty State University and Brigham Young Universi- member, became the ninth person to receive ty for thirty-five years. Hintze mentored many the Silver Medal in Musical Acoustics from the BYU students’ thesis projects and in summer Acoustical Society of America (ASA) for a lifetime field mapping camps in western Utah. He was of acoustical research excellence. Strong taught known as “Mr. Utah Geology’’ by his peers for at BYU from 1967 to 2001. He continues to his extensive knowledge and contributions to contribute to the program through the Acoustics the geology of the State of Utah. Research Group in the physics department. New Faculty: After receiving his bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah in geology, Sam Hudson earned his master’s degree from the University of Nevada Las Vegas before returning to the University of Utah for a PhD.
Research: Gus Hart and graduate student Conrad Rosenbrock went on The Morning Show on BYU Radio to talk about their research in computational physics. Their research, from which Rosenbrock won second place at the university 3MT competition, MATHEMATICS focuses on using supercomputers to generate In Remembrance: Hal G. Moore passed away recipes for new materials. Sunday, May 4, 2014. Moore worked as a math professor at BYU from 1961 until his STATISTICS retirement in 1995. His multiple publications Research: Shane Reese and his colleagues had a primary research emphasis on associative Grant Schultz and Mitsuru Saito have develrings and algebras, general algebraic systems, oped one of the country’s most advanced traflinear and multilinear algebra, and matrix fic safety models using Bayesian statistics. The theory. Moore loved teaching so much that model combines with geographic information after he retired he continued to teach in the and can predict the number of crashes on spemath department until the winter of 2003. cific roadways to help identify areas of concern.
STUDENT NEWS
OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM Mathematics
Geological Sciences Josh Maurer, a graduate student working with Dr. Summer Rupper, is using declassified spy images from the Hexagon satellite to learn how Himalayan glaciers change over time. Similar glacial studies have been accomplished by taking a three-to-four week trip to a glacier in Bhutan and using field-based methods, but Maurer was able to do his work from the comfort of his lab. Maurer uses old, spy satellite pictures to create a 3D model of the glacier from the ’70s and compare it to the more high-precision shape of the glacier today. By seeing the trends in how the glaciers have changed in the past, Maurer and his colleagues can predict how the glaciers will likely change in the future. This is good news for the people and farms in the region that depend on the meltwater from the glaciers to survive. PHOTO:Josh Maurer doing fieldwork in the Himalayas.
Members of BYU’s competitive math team proved they are again among the top mathematics students in the nation, ranking ninth at this year’s William Lowell Putnam Exam. One of the most prestigious university-level mathematics exams in the world, the Putnam Exam is an annual competition for undergraduates in the United States, Canada, and Tel Aviv University in Israel. Twentytwo students from BYU participated in this year’s Putnam Exam. Sam Dittmer, a senior, placed in the top 50 and received an honorable mention. Two additional BYU students—Peter Baratta and Yifeng Xu—placed in the top 200 in the nation. Dittmer trained for the exam for five to ten hours each week during the four months leading up to it, but in a broader sense, he explained, he has been training for years. He has been involved in math contests since he was thirteen or fourteen. PHOTO: From left to right, Hiram Golze, Sam Dittmer, and Peter Baratta caused a stir in 2013 when they took 7th at the Putnam Exam. Dittmer and Baratta were on this year’s team.
Chemistry & Biochemistry
PHOTOS: BYU Photo
Lisa Heppler, an undergraduate student working with Dr. Josh Andersen, was recently published in Cancer Research for her work linking lysine acetylation to cell death. She found that lysine acetylation played an integral part in dictating the survival of cells in hypoxia (a region of the body without proper oxygen supply).
0101 Computer Science 1010 1
Wesley Tippetts, a computer science student in the animation program, brought home BYU’s 16th College Television Awards (commonly called “student Emmys”) for the short film, “Owned.” “Owned” is the brainchild of Tippetts, but forty different students worked on the short film. Along with the Student Emmy, the film won a Student Academy Award (Motion Picture Academy).
Mathematics Education
Physics & Astronomy
Statistics
Rebecca Jack, an undergraduate student, is working with Doug Corey on analyzing teacher change. Teachers participated in the Math Solutions professional development training, and then teachers and students were observed to assess its effectiveness. They then analyzed video recordings of their lessons to see if their self-reported teaching practices happened.
Stephen Erickson, a double major in physics and mathematics, was one of two BYU students awarded a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship (a total of $7,500) this last term. Erickson’s superior researching resume and current research on voltaics and solar cells set him apart from the other 1100 candidates.
The Conference on Data Analysis (CoDA) was held March 5–7, 2014 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. At the poster competition, statistics student Brittany Spencer, who is working on her master’s, competed against 18 primarily PhD student participants. She placed 2nd for her poster on supernovae light curves. The competition was sponsored by the American Statistical Association's section on Statistics in Defense and National Security.
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October
Event Calendar
2014
The College 10/2/14, 9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. General Career Fair •Wilkinson Student Center Ballroom
STAY CONNECTED:
Chemistry & Biochemistry
Join us this next year
10/17/14 Annual Homecoming Reception and Dinner •Reception and dinner at 6:30 p.m. in room W170 BNSN •Presentation at 7:30 p.m. in room W140 10/25/214 Hands-on chemistry demos •Provo Library for K–6th graders 10/19/14–10/25/14 National Chemistry Week • YChem Magic Shows 10/20/14– 10/24/14 •Benson Building •chem.byu.edu/nationalchemistryweek
The College 10/2/14, 9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. General Career Fair •Wilkinson Student Center Ballroom BYU Homecoming •October 14–18 10/16/14, 11:00 p.m.–12:00 p.m. Honored Alumni Homecoming Lecture • Gregory Hebertson, senior vice president of Exploration at Midstates Petroleum Company, 1170 TMCB 10/17/14, 10:00 a.m. CVLC Meetings, Timp Lodge 10/16/14–10/17/14, 7:30 p.m. Homecoming Spectacular •Marriott Center • Purchase tickets at byutickets.com
Geological Sciences 10/17/14, 9:00 a.m. Alumni Field Trip •RSVP + lunch fee (paid to department)
September
2014
The College 9/18/14, 7:00 p.m. Summerhays Lecture •John D. Lamb, BYU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry •1080 Harold B. Lee Library 9/18/14, 12:00 p.m. Women's Career Conversations •Third floor Hinckley Center 9/24/14, 7:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m. Job Search Savvy Workshop •3220–3224 Wilkinson Student Center 9/24/14 BYU Graduate School Fair •Wilkinson Student Center Ballroom 9/25/14, 9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. STEM Fair •Wilkinson Student Center Ballroom
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10/18/14, 9:00 a.m. Alumni Breakfast •RSVP to department required •3280 Wilkinson Student Center
Mathematics 10/18/14, 12:00 p.m.–1:30 p.m. Alumni Tailgate Party •3228 Wilkinson Student Center
Physics & Astronomy 10/17/14 Homecoming Activities •Social and Reception 4:00 p.m.–6:30 p.m. ESC Pendulum Court •Planetarium shows 4:45 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. •Physics demonstrations 4:45 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. •Attend BYU Homecoming Spectacular with the department at 7:30 p.m. Friday Night Planetarium Shows •Schedule at planetarium.byu.edu
Mathematics Education 10/18/14, 12:00 p.m.–1:30 p.m. Annual Homecoming Alumni Breakfast •3228 Wilkinson Student Center
November
2014
Computer Science 11/6/14, 6:00 p.m. Alumni Appreciation Dinner •Hinckley Center •TIckets at csaa.byu.edu
Physics & Astronomy 11/7/14, 7:00 p.m. 11/8/14, 3:00 p.m. 11/10/14, 6:00 p.m. Sounds to Astound •Experience the science of sound with fiery explosions and smashing demonstrations. •Visit sound.byu.edu for more information.
January
2015
The College 1/29/15, 9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. General Career Fair •Wilkinson Student Center Ballroom
STILL GROWING
February
2015
The College 2/6/15, 12:00 p.m. Women's Career Conversations •Third floor Hinckley Center 2/12/15, 9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. STEM Fair •Wilkinson Student Center Ballroom
March
2015
May
The College
Chemistry & Biochemistry
3/21/15, 8:00 a.m. Student Research Conference •Jesse Knight Building
5/16/15 5/23/15 Open Lab Day •Benson Building
2015
Chemistry & Biochemistry 3/7/15 Rex Lee Run •Run a 5K to support cancer research •More info at rexleerun.byu.edu
Mathematics 3/13/15, 12:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. Pi Day •Brigham Square 3/6/15–3/14/15 Pi Spectacular •To celebrate 3.14.15, there will be a week full of events at The Wall in the Wilkinson Student Center •Visit math.byu.edu/pi-day for more information
Physics & Astronomy 5/2015 Astrofest •For date and times, visit: physics.byu. edu/clubs/astrosoc/astrofest/
June
2015
Statistics 6/17/15–6/19/15 Summer Institute of Applied Statistics
Our college continues to use donated endowment funds to support undergraduate research and keep our graduate programs competitive. With the help of your donations, we will continue to progress toward our goal of $20 million. Zachary Knowlton, an undergraduate student in the Department of Statistics, is one student who has benefited from donations to the endowment. The dona10m 10m tions helped fund his undergraduate research award. Knowlton works with Dr. Gil Fellingham and other students to find new ways to analyze sports data through 8m 8m performing analytics on the BYU football team. “My personal career goal is to be a sports analyst and help teams succeed with the aid of 6m 6m statistics,” Knowlton said. “I know that it is a difficult field to enter, but the experience I am gaining as well as my willingness to work hard and 4m think outside the box will . . . 4m lead to further success down the road.” Knowlton’s research experience will be a great advantage to him when he applies to the 22m m statistics masters program at BYU. There are many other students like Knowlton who would also qualify and benefit from an undergraduate research award. If you would like to contribute or know somebody who would, please visit http://cpms.byu.edu/donate/, or contact Brent Hall by phone at 801.422.4501, or by email at brenth@byu.edu. UNDERGRADUATE UNDERGRADUATE MENTORING MENTORING
Izatt-Christensen Lecture •Visit chemistry.byu.edu for more information.
GRADUATE MENTORING MENTORING GRADUATE
Chemistry & Biochemistry
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EVOLVING ROLES:
Mark Clement’s Journey to Discovering His Calling Text: Meg Monk Photo: Josh Siebert
F
inding his calling in computer science was a journey that took Mark Clement years. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering and gaining several years of experience working in industry, Clement began to miss the learning process that came with academia. During graduate school, Clement’s favorite research had been in the area of computer science, and he found he was interested in continuing in that field. Clement decided to get a PhD in computer science at Oregon State University, which he finished in 1994. Despite his interest in doing research, Clement was surprised at what else he learned during his doctoral work. “All of your training during your PhD is how to do research and there is absolutely no training on how to teach, and I realized that I really liked teaching,” he said.
A FATHER
While working on his PhD, Clement began to feel that his family was supposed to be somewhere else. Upon approaching his wife about it, she said she had been feeling the same way for months and was just waiting for him to come around to the same conclusion. After completing his degree, it came time to apply for work, and Clement only applied to BYU. Clement became an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at BYU in 1994 and since then has enjoyed helping students understand difficult concepts, as well as the challenge of having to answer any question he gets in class. Though he enjoys the aspect of solving important problems with the graduate students he mentors, he especially enjoys working with undergraduate students because of the “aha!” moments he gets to experience when they understand something for the first time. Clement is grateful for the prompting he had to become a teacher, and especially to come to BYU, a place he feels he was “called to.” “It kind of feels like a long mission,” he said. “I know this is where Heavenly Father wants me to serve.”
A MENTOR
Two of Clement’s sons graduated from the computer science department here at BYU, but he jokes that he hasn’t been able to convince any of his daughters to join the family industry. In fact, Clement has dedicated much time during his career as a professor to encouraging more women to go into computer science. “I think it’s an excellent career, particularly for LDS women,” he said. “You can have children and still maintain your career. Plus, women do an excellent job.” To support this endeavor to recruit more women to the program, Clement “hunts them down” when they take his classes to encourage them to stay, as well as administering surveys to the women in his classes to find out why many women choose to leave computer science. He then sets about trying to remedy some of those problems in order to help more women feel that they have a place in computer science.
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AN ADVOCATE
In his research, Clement focuses on finding new solutions for treating diseases through bioinformatics. He develops methods for storing, retrieving, and then applying biological data to developing software tools to aid in finding solutions for biological problems. Currently, Clement’s lab is focused on looking for new algorithms for processing the DNA sequence data associated with Alzheimer’s disease. In the past, he has worked on other projects, such as Down syndrome, that felt more personal because he has had experience with it in his own family. When his wife was pregnant with one of their daughters, they were told that they would need to terminate the pregnancy because their child would be extremely deformed. The Clements chose to have the baby, who was born perfectly healthy. “Many couples will go in and get genetic counseling when they’re pregnant and [will be told], ‘you need to have an abortion because this child has Down syndrome,’ or some other genetic condition,” he explained. “I would like there to be another option. . . . It just makes me sad to think of all the people who have had abortions of perfectly normal children, and yet they felt they didn’t have any other option.” In response, Clement’s lab has been studying biological data to better understand the biology behind Down syndrome to hopefully help develop the science behind a future drug for expectant mothers that could help eliminate some of the negative effects of Down syndrome. “I like feeling like what I’m doing makes a difference,” Clement said. “One of the main reasons that I supervise graduate students is to help them stay motivated and to help them realize that what they’re doing is important. I like all of my roles.”
PHOTO: Josh Siebert
A TEACHER
Clement also applies his mentoring style to parenting his nine children. Each of them grew up helping in the family garden, as well as raising bees and chickens. Clement feels the task of caring for something living taught them responsibility. “We like them to have jobs they can do,” he said. “Chickens are not a moneymaking enterprise, but it does give them something they have to do every day.” In addition to gardening, Clement enjoys many other outdoor activities with his family, such as rock climbing and canyoneering. He also enjoys riding his bicycle to work each day to help the environment and his health.
“I know this is where Heavenly Father wants me to serve.”
SOLVING SOCIAL INJUSTICE ONE MATH PROBLEM AT A TIME Text: Caroline Smith
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Math Problem Social Injustice FALL 2014
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E
xperiences in adolescence can leave a mark on individuals for the rest of their lives and mold them into the type of people they will be. Kate Johnson, a professor in the Department of Mathematics Education, is one such example of how experiences have led her to where she is today. In high school, Johnson had a friend from India who was facing competing ideals of what it meant to be a good American girl and a good Indian girl. One day, the pressure was too much and she tried to kill herself. “The day she finally decided to try to take her life, she called me while she was doing it and that was the first time I really understood the pressures that were on her,” Johnson said. “It was something that helped me realize that I needed to better understand people and the positions that people are in and the places they are coming from. That planted the seed that I needed to do more than just do nothing.” This experience sparked Johnson’s interest in teaching math for social justice, which is teaching math in ways that illuminate social inequity and empower students to seek social change and provide opportunities for students and
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people that are marginalized in any way to achieve their fullest potential. She started with deaf students. While working towards her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Miami University in Ohio, she worked at an educational summer camp for high school girls and was assigned to the deaf participants. “I originally thought that I wanted to be an urban school teacher to help empower the underserved,” Johnson said. “But when I met the deaf girls, they were also traditionally underserved students, and I thought sign language was interesting so I just fell in love with them and decided I wanted to be a teacher of the deaf.” Johnson subsequently received her master’s degree in deaf education from the University of Pittsburgh in 2004 and went on to teach at the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind, where she further developed her ideas and began to consider the influence of social justice on teaching math. “I saw the utility of teaching this way because it blends math with social justice issues where it’s controlled in my classroom,” Johnson said. “As a classroom teacher, I hadn’t been exposed to those particular ideas yet. I was just sort
PHOTOS: Josh Siebert
of trying to navigate them on my own. When my students would ask me tough questions, I just had to say simple things that didn’t really help them understand.” Through struggling with how to handle the hard questions her students raised about the world, Johnson realized that math could help them sort through the many differing points of view. The way this is done is through typical math tasks, like a story problem, but the subject of that story problem would be sharing wages in a sweatshop rather than sharing crayons in a classroom. “The ultimate goal of teaching math for social justice is to help kids better understand the world around them in conjunction with math,” Johnson said. “Students are going to talk about those issues whether or not we give them math as a tool to do so, and so to me, we should be giving them math as a tool to think and talk about those issues so they can see the utility of math and so they can make stronger arguments.” Besides encouraging students to become more aware of issues in their world, Johnson is also interested in the
Kate Johnson is a professor in the Department of Mathematics Education.
teachers’ perspectives and experiences with those issues. The idea of teachers’ experiences influencing their classroom was curious to Johnson and has been a main focus of her research. “I’m interested in teachers’ identities, as it pertains to mathematics teachers, particularly in the context of teaching math for social justice,” Johnson said. “So basically that’s like teaching math in contexts that help bring to light social issues in addition to teaching key math principles. If that’s the way you are going to teach math, then how does your race, gender, class, or awareness of your privilege play a role in the way you teach about those topics? Basically, when you state it broadly, I’m interested in how who we are shapes what we do as teachers.” These ideas of examining how people’s identities impact their future as educators pushed Johnson to go back to school for her PhD from Michigan State in curriculum, instruction and teacher education with an emphasis in mathematics education. “I realized that teachers are learners too, in part because I got student teachers and I just started to become interested in the kinds of things they needed to know in order to be productive math teachers,” Johnson said. Johnson’s mindset on teaching has stayed the same, but her reach to students and impact for good is steadily expanding. “I wanted to broaden my impact,” Johnson said. “When I was a high school teacher, I used to say that I was teaching the world one deaf student at a time, and then when I went back to school to be a teacher educator, I said teaching the world a little more than one kid at a time. Because if you impact one teacher, it will impact more children that way, and teaching math through social justice to those teachers will bring about greater social change.”
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Text: Meg Monk Photo: courtesy of Stephen Manortey
W
hen Stephen Manortey came to the United States to attend Brigham Young University, he knew he wasn’t here to stay. Manortey, who grew up in rural Ghana and knows intimately the struggles his fellow Ghanaians face, always intended to return home to use his education to help lift the lives of others. “I feel that when I’m done, I must not stay here to work, but I have to go back immediately to help,” he said. This desire to help others stems from his own experiences. After high school, Manortey wanted to further his education, but his family couldn’t afford to send him to a university. Instead, Manortey attended Ada College of Education to learn to teach social studies. After his graduation in 1991, he went to work at a rural junior high school in the Eastern Region, Ghana. When he arrived, Manortey discovered that the school’s greatest need was not a social studies teacher, but a mathematics teacher. He immediately went to work. “I just went to buy books and started reading to [learn to] teach. That sparked my interest and love for the subject,” Manortey said. After five years of teaching junior high, he decided to return to school himself. Manortey graduated from the University of Ghana with a bachelor’s degree in statistics in 1999. For the next eight years he taught high school mathematics, but still didn’t feel that he was done learning. At the encouragement of his wife, Christiana, Manortey applied to Brigham Young University to study statistics at the graduate level. The remote area of Ghana where Manortey and his family lived in those days had no Internet access, so each week Manortey traveled two hours to the nearest
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town, which had an Internet café, to see if there was any news from BYU. Week after week, he heard nothing. Frustrated and discouraged, he wanted to give up. “I’m always grateful for the inspiration from my wife,” Manortey said. “She told me, ‘Stephen, you need to continue looking at this.’ ‘Well, I’ll travel to this café for the last time,’ I told her, ‘and if I go and don’t get any feedback, I’ll call it quits.’” Luckily, that one last time was the time BYU responded—with a letter of acceptance and a full-ride scholarship. The Manorteys had to sell many of their possessions to afford the plane tickets to travel to the United States, but money was not their largest obstacle. Because of visa complications, their son, Elias, stayed in Ghana with his grandparents until the Manorteys could get permission to bring him to the States, a process that would take over three years. Following his graduation from BYU in 2006, Manortey took a job working as a market research analyst for a Salt Lake City based company. He soon realized however, that his true desire was to use his education to benefit the lives of those he left behind in Ghana. With the usual encouragement from his wife, Manortey applied to the University of Utah School of Medicine to study public health with
a focus in biostatistics and analysis of spatial data. His desire to use his education to help others led to opportunities for Manortey to do so, even while he was still in his doctoral work. Through collaboration with a local university and teaching hospital in Ghana, Manortey was able to co-direct an annual study abroad program for graduate and medical students to conduct research and help address health challenges in rural communities in Ghana. Manortey received his PhD from the University of Utah in May of 2013 and worked as a postdoc research fellow in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of Utah in several capacities, including serving as a study coordinator and data analyst for a longitudinal multiple micronutrient supplement research project on reproductiveaged women in rural Ghana. He then accepted a job offer in Ghana where he will teach, starting September 2014, at Ensign College of Public Health and continue his research to help improve the quality of life in West Africa. The opportunity to study at BYU was what Manortey calls “the beginning of many miracles.” Through these miracles, Manortey was able to receive the blessings of education, a blessing he intends to spend his life passing on to others.
Stephen Manortey (pictured right) with his wife, Christiana, and his son, Elias.
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PHOTO: Josh Siebert
THE MAKING OF A SCIENTIST: AN UNLIKELY JOURNEY Dr. Mario R. Capecchi was born in Verona, Italy in 1937. He received his BS in chemistry and physics from Antioch College in 1961 and his PhD in biophysics from Harvard University in 1967. His thesis work, under the guidance of Dr. James D. Watson, included the analysis of the mechanisms of nonsense suppression; the initiation of protein synthesis, including the demonstration of Formylmethionine tRNA as the initiator of protein synthesis; and the mechanisms of protein termination. From 1967 to 1969, Dr. Capecchi was a Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. In 1969 he became an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry at Harvard School of Medicine. He was promoted to associate professor in 1971. In 1973 he joined the faculty at the University of Utah as a professor of biology. Since 1988 Dr. Capecchi has been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; since 1989, a professor of human genetics at the University of Utah School of Medicine; and since 1993, Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics and Biology. He is also co-chairman of the Department of Human Genetics. In 2007 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine with Oliver Smithies and Martin Evans. —courtesy of Mario R. Capecchi
2014 IZATT-CHRISTENSEN LECTURE BY MARIO R. CAPECCHI
I
t’s really a pleasure to be here and to celebrate both Professor Izatt and Christensen. I think anytime you have somebody who excels and does great science and things for the community we all benefit, and I thank you. My lecture is going to have three parts. The first part will just be a general overlook as to what I do as a scientist. The second part will be the embarrassing part, which is talking about my roots. And the final part will be the story of my recent trip to Stockholm, and hopefully that will be a little bit more fun. So, what do I do as a scientist? I study genes. My patients are mice, but don’t be queasy. They’re not your genes; they’re mice genes. In each cell, there is a very complicated instruction manual. To illustrate the complexity, it has an alphabet of four letters instead of twenty-six, and it’s the order of those four letters that indicate what the text means. The instruction manual contains three billion letters. A big book with no pictures will have roughly 3,000 billion letters per page. That means that this instruction manual is 1,000 volumes, each 1,000 pages long. However, it’s written in a language other than English and there isn’t a Rosetta Stone to translate it. Our laboratory developed a way to start translating that information without a Rosetta Stone. For example, we can go to volume 78, open it up, and go to a particular part of the text. We can then change a part of that text and observe the consequences. If the little finger disappears in a mouse, we know we’re in the program for making little fingers. I work with mice because of their gene content, which is the working unit of the letters. It takes about 40,000 letters to make a gene. In terms of gene content, we’re 99.9 percent the same as mice, so whatever we learn in a mouse is likely to be directly applicable to humans. Whether the gene content is the same or different, it’s going to be extremely informative. For example, if there are bald mice with defective nails, we could go to the human population and find people who are bald and have defective nails. We can look at their DNA and determine which gene is defective (which in this case is HOX C13, the same gene as in the mouse). We found that if a gene is introduced into a cell, it gets complexed with very complicated machinery. There are about thirty-five different proteins all coupled together, and then they search through the entire genome—all three billion base pairs—until they find the exact same sequence in the genome of that mouse. What’s remarkable about this search for an exact sequence in the genome is that it takes about thirty minutes to look at all three billion base pairs. It’s so fast that it can’t do it simply by searching; it has to be looking for a one-dimensional switch. In thirty minutes, the cell gets onto a chromosome, spins down the helix, looks at one major group that has enough information to tell it what that place is, samples it, and sees whether it’s the same as its neighbors in terms of itself. In that time, a computer couldn’t do it that quickly.
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PHOTO: Josh Siebert
Mario Capecchi talks about how he came from living on the streets to winning the Nobel Prize.
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“Everybody felt that they were responsible for everybody...” 28 FRONTIERS
could smite Nazism and Fascism. So she got very active in pamphleteering even though she knew what she was doing was dangerous. My mom was eventually conscripted in Dachau because of her political views. Fortunately, she survived, but what she saw and witnessed is much more horrific than anything I ever saw. Just before she was taken to Dachau, she sold everything and gave the money to a farming family she had me live with. After a year, they suddenly could no longer support me, so I went to the streets. From age four and a half to age nine, I lived on the streets. In 1945, Dachau was liberated by American troops. My mother tried to find me, and it took her a little over a year and a half to find me. She found me one day in October of 1946, which happened to be my birthday. She found me in a hospital suffering from typhoid and malnutrition I didn’t recognize her; five years had completely changed her. But I knew she was a ticket out of there. We went to Rome to get papers and my uncle in Pennsylvania sent money to get boat tickets, and we sailed to America. When we arrived in New York, the magnificent Statue of Liberty was there, and everybody just watched it. We were one of the very last groups of people who actually went through Ellis Island. My mother and I lived in a commune of sixty-five families that my uncle, who was a Quaker, had helped put together. I went from an asocial environment and the war in Italy to an inconceivably social environment. It was just amazing because everybody felt that they were responsible for everybody, so I really did have sixty-five families. I continued my Quaker training in developing the mind, the soul, and serving others by going to high school at George School, a Quaker prep school. What I learned there was essentially solving world problems. After graduating from the school, I went to Antioch, which is a small liberal arts college in Ohio. For the very first quarter, I was a political science major but then switched to physics. After Anitoch I went to Harvard, and from there I ended up in Utah. Lastly, I’m going to finish my speech with my very quick trip to Stockholm with Oliver Smithies and Martin Evans. Now, this trip took place in the wintertime. Stockholm is way up north. We had light for only about four hours a day. It’s really magnificent because the ocean essentially inundates the whole city, sort of like fingers. Wherever we were, we always saw water and boats.
PHOTO: Tim Kelly, University of Utah
Later, I started a new project with regenerated mice. We did the experiments in mouse embryonic stem cells (ES cells). When we started this work, these cells did not exist. However, I knew I needed those cells. I think the grant committee was just a little worried about that problem. But I had faith. You know scientists aren’t supposed to have faith, but they do. Fortunately, four years into the project, I heard that Martin Evans in Cambridge, England had an idea that EC cells (embryonal carcinoma cells) taken from a tumor, which were similar to ES cells, would work. However, they didn’t participate in making sperm and eggs. There were many other failures with the EC cells. Then I heard that Martin Evans was working on making EC-like cells from an embryo rather than from a tumor. I called him and asked to come work in his lab with him to learn about working with these cells. Martin Evans, Olive Smithies, and myself were competitors, but by working together, we essentially created a monopoly. That gave us a lot of leisure in the sense that we could make the technology we needed to control the consequences of missing or modified genes in mice. Now we go to the embarrassing part: my roots. My mom was a poet and got her education at the Sorbonne where she was a lecturer both in literature and in poetry. Then my mom got involved in politics. (This was pre-World War II.) She had the audacity to think that with the pen she
Mario Capecchi working in his lab.
“My trip to Stockholm not only gave me a Nobel Prize but also a long-lost family member.” When we arrived in Stockholm, there was a limousine that came right to the airplane. That limousine and that driver were ours for twelve days. At the hotel there were thousands of people who wanted our autographs. Then, two days later, Bruce Springsteen showed up, and the whole crowd ran to him. This is how you know where scientists stand when compared to rock stars. They kept us busy from 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. the next morning every day for twelve days. It was quite a party! When we went into the Nobel Assembly itself, there were flowers everywhere. Because it was the middle of winter the flowers were all shipped from Italy for that day and they were gorgeous. The protocol was easy; all we had to do was look and do whatever the king did. It wasn’t difficult or dramatic. There were fifty people who chose the winners of the Nobel Prize. To make the choice, they went in a big room with a huge round table and locked the door. The door was only unlocked when all fifty people reached a consensus. They finally do because eventually they want to get out.
After we were announced as the winners and were congratulated, there was a procession down to the eating place. It was a very congenial, orchestrated dinner of 1500 people. The dessert had Roman candles shooting out all these flares of different colors. In the next procession, there was dancing, singing, and lots of festivities. Each dance was put on by a different college. Everybody wanted to dance, particularly with the decrepit old people who had won the Nobel Prize. Many newspapers published articles about the Nobel Prize winners. It turns out my half sister (of whom I had no knowledge) read one of those article; she had thought I was dead and that our mother was also dead. She went to the publishing newspaper and told them the story. They arranged for us to meet, and we did. She had never seen my mother, yet she had mannerisms of my mother. My trip to Stockholm not only gave me a Nobel Prize but also a longlost family member.
PHOTO: courtesy of Mario Capecchi
BYU College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences
Brigham Young University, N-181 ESC, Provo, UT 84602
Alex Safsten, who double majors in physics and mathematics, is grateful to BYU and to donors for his mentored learning research opportunities with faculty members. Safsten is on a research team under Dr. Karine Chesnel (physics) that studies the physics and dynamics of x-rays and magnetic nanostructures. The goal is to find materials that exhibit “magnetic memory,” a very special property. “What I do is use a machine called a synchrotron to measure the domain structure,” Safsten said. “BYU doesn’t have one, so we travel to Chicago to use the one at Argonne National Laboratory. Most of the time, my job involves writing computer code to analyze the images made by the synchrotron to find out how much magnetic memory is in the sample.” Safsten also works closely with his other mentor, Dr. Denise Halverson (mathematics), and is involved in a variety of projects. One such project involved mathematically confirming the computer results for a mechanism called a kaleidocycle.
To discuss helping the college with a special gift, contact Brent Hall at 801-422-4501 or email brenth@byu.edu
They discovered some equations to show the number of stable states for each kaleidocycle. From this project, they recently submitted a paper for publication. “Both of [my mentors] are good at what they do,” Safsten said. “The invitation to join their groups really helped me to learn that I am capable of bringing new knowledge to the scientific community that I wouldn’t know about myself if I hadn’t had this opportunity.” Safsten hopes to go on to grad school to get his PhD so that he can become a math professor and research in an area of math called dynamical systems and chaos theory. “I have always loved teaching people and seeing them apply things I have learned. . . . I’d like to take the knowledge I have and give it to other people,” Safsten said. We invite you to help other BYU students by giving back to the college and creating opportunities for students to participate in research. If you are interested in funding a scholarship or mentorship for CPMS students, please donate online at cpms.byu.edu/donate.
1450 1450n. n.university universityAvenue, avenue, provo, ut 84604
Text: Madison Parks; Photo: Josh Siebert
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