When did you know you wanted to be a scientist?
Ever since I was about 7, I wanted to be a physician.
Did your parents support your decision?
I had a very modern father who felt strongly that if a child is bright enough to do something, they should be pushed to use their capabilities. When I went into research, he was a little bit disappointed because he didn’t know that much about biology research and felt I was leaving something very important by leaving medicine. In the end, I didn’t, because my research became very medical.
Why go into research?
I was in medical school and I saw some patients that were really, really sick and had been lying in bed for a long time. One in particular had bedsores, and after seeing that, I wondered if I could really handle patients like that because I was beginning to feel quite ill myself.
When you were getting started in your career, did you work with other female virologists, or were you the only one?
I looked hard for other female virologists, and there were very few. I found a microbiologist who worked with bacteria, but I really never found someone who worked with viruses.
You had to imagine yourself in roles that didn’t always seem natural. But I did have some wonderful professors who were very supportive. My thesis advisor said to me, when I did some experiments that he liked very much, he said, “You know, Alice, you’re going to be a professor someday.” And suddenly it occurred to me, why not? So I set about moving in that direction.
As AAAS president, you promoted “science diplomacy.” Tell me what that means.
It is using science and scientists to hopefully engage another country in dialogue. The classic example is during the Cold War when sometimes the regular diplomacy between the United States and the Soviet Union would fall apart but nuclear scientists continued to talk to each other.
Speaking of international relations, should we be alarmed that the United States is falling behind in scientific innovation rankings?
We should think about it. We’re still the wealthiest country in the world in terms of [gross domestic product,] and we still have some of the very best training sites in our universities. But a telling fact that says, “Wake up, United States!” is [that] about 5 to 25 percent of our trained scientists are returning to their home countries. Usually we would keep so many more of them here.
The governments of countries in East and South Asia are much more willing to invest in education and research, which is a contrast to us right now, especially with this last round of budget talks.
What are some strategies for attracting women and minorities to traditionally white, male fields?
We need to understand the young people’s motivations. For example, there was a computer class for adults at [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology] in the 1980s when computers were first coming out. The men were interested in taking the computer apart to see how it worked. Women wanted to know what the computer was good for and how they could use the programs to do things. There are differences in interest.
You’ve talked about a lack of public recognition for scientists in this country. Might that be part of the problem?
Yes. I remember a trip to China where they did a poll among college kids as to whom they admire most, and Einstein came out on the top. At the same time, we were asking our [U.S.] students whom they would like for a commencement speaker, and they wanted a movie star!
There are people who are working hard to have some TV shows and plays about scientists so they’re not seen as “evil scientists” but they’re human and perhaps even heroic. One of them is a show that had a very successful run on CBS called “Numb3rs,” about math. When we highlighted the show at a AAAS meeting and had the star of the show and director and math consultant there, the meeting room was jammed with young women mathematicians.
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