Interview: Professor Matthew Schmidt

By Valerie Panico
Staff Writer

Currently an adjunct professor in the Biology department, Professor Matthew Schmidt received his Ph.D. in Genetics from Stony Brook University, and is also a professor at SUNY's Empire State College. One of the more popular professors among Stony Brook students, Schmidt recently sat down with the Independent for an interview:

1) Panico: We are always concerned with the knowledge students are attaining from their classes and professors. What has teaching at Stony Brook taught you, and what have you learned from your students?

Schmidt: I've learned more about biology since I left graduate school and started teaching, so it's definitely true that teaching is the most powerful way of learning. Many Stony Brook students have a great deal of intelligence and I'm constantly learning new things every day, especially when I talk to
students one-on-one, and not just about biology, but about life in general.

2) VP: What were your thoughts on attending Stony Brook as a student working towards your Ph.D., and how have they changed?

MS: I really did not enjoy graduate school that much, although I did learn a lot. It was a character building process, but I did learn that it wasn't in my personality to be a research scientist. I enjoyed Stony Brook as a place, and I had a lot of friends in the same department and we did a lot of things together. Going to Stony Brook as a graduate student and teaching here is probably the reason why I live on Long Island. Teaching here is more of a job, and I don't mean that in a negative way, but life circumstances change and you have to support your family. When I come in now, I look at it as if I have to get something done, but when you are a student you have less responsibility, you have more freedom to follow things you want to pursue. Every now and then, I'll see a lecture I want to attend, but I [usually] can't due to family commitments.

3) VP: Who has been your most influential colleague at Stony Brook, and in what ways has this person been an influence to you?

MS: My advisor as a graduate student was a very kind and nurturing scientist who taught me a lot and was influential. More in the present, Dr. Paul Bingham is definitely my biggest role model, he is unbelievably intelligent and creative. He has shown me that there are a lot of things that I probably wouldn't have thought on my own that you can do in the context of being a university professor. So, definitely Dr. Paul Bingham has been the greatest influence on me.

4) VP: You have recieved an award nomination recently and have a near perfect rating on ratemyprofessor.com. What do you think distinguishes you as a unique professor on campus?

MS: I feel that I am able to approach students in a way that doesn't intimidate them, even in a big lecture hall. My main goal is to have students walk out of the class at the end of the semester with a working knowledge of the subject. My philosophy is that if they are engaged and interested, and even if the material isn't ridiculously difficult, they will come out having a good foundation and probably retain that information for a longer period of time compared to having to memorize facts for a test.

5) VP: Only about 40 percent of undergraduate students are graduating in four years at Stony Brook, while the rest take longer. This problem can partially be attributed to overcrowding of classes. This semester, your class, BIO 102 was cancelled a week before the semester was to begin. Do you think the issue of students not graduating in four years is a momentous problem, and do you think this problem can be dealt with efficiently?

MS: Well, there is a large percentage of commuter students at Stony Brook. Because they live nearby, they tend to work and go to school at the same time, and thats why the statistics may seem skewed. After all, commuters can take off a semester and not have it act as a major life changing disaster.

6) VP: As a biology professor, teaching evolution can be a controversial subject among many. What do you believe is the most widespread misconception about evolution and how have you addressed this in your classes?

MS: It would be hard to pinpoint one misconception. People who do believe in evolution often have misconceptions about it. A lot of people look at evolution as a goal directed process, and this is one major misconception. It's often assumed that we are the pinnacle of the biological world. Some people believe that the human race is evolving rapidly and that in another 10,000 years we may evolve into something totally different than what we are now, which is certainly not the case. If anything, our rate of evolution is slowing.

7) VP: Many decades have passed since the Scopes Trial, but even in the 21st Century, we still do not have people that accept the theory of evolution. Several states have disclaimers in their textbooks saying that evolution is a theory and not a fact. Several states avoid evolution in their state standards altogether. As time progresses, do you predict that these statistics will change, and if so, to what extent?

MS: We may be coming to a major conflict over this issue. For example, evolution is a theory, but many people use that term inappropriately. I believe that we are a divided country in a sense of many aspects of life. On one hand, it saddens me, but on the other hand, I think its great we live in a country where everyone's voice can be heard. I'm confident that reason will succeed in letting science go unhindered.

8) VP: The President of Harvard University, Lawrence H. Summers, created a
controversial uproar at an academic conference recently when he said that innate differences between men and women might be one reason fewer women succeed in math and science careers. Can you elaborate on what you think he means be innate differences, and what are your feelings upon sex discrimination in science?

MS: There always seems to be someone that can be offended by what you say. I do believe that there are innate differences between men and women, anatomical differences, for example. There's a lot of information on brain studies, showing that the brains of men and women differ in pattern activity, [perhaps] inferring that women and men have different ways of approaching things. I'm happy to report that there are probably more women graduating with Ph.D.'s in the life sciences now then in the past. Statistics will probably equalize in the future, and there will be the same amount of males and females in the field of life sciences.

9) VP: You screen the movie Gattaca in one of your biology classes which displays a society controlled by genetics, and you have attained your Ph.D. in the field of molecular genetics. To what extent do you see genetics playing a role in our future?

MS: I think genetics will play a massive role in our future and I don't think people appreciate the changes that are potentially upon us. Just the impact that genetics will have on the lives of non-scientists is underestimated. I hope we do not turn into the society portrayed in Gattaca, but I think it is naive to think we are not going to use this information in a way that is going to affect society. There is an old saying that our technology and intelligence proceeds at a faster pace than our morals and our ethics. I can only hope that our ability to accomodate the knowledge we have concerning genetics will increase quickly.

10) VP: How has science and teaching changed your outlook on life?

MS: I'm glad that I went into teaching rather than research. I really gained a lot of perspective by interacting with students and colleagues, and I can't imagine what my life would be like if I didn't interact with these individuals consistently. Teaching has shown me that the people who I may have originally made assumptions about, might not be deserving of the judgment that I have assumed about them. Science teaches your mind to be disciplined, so I hope this has helped me in my maturation process.