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BEAL: |
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My
name's Peter Beal and I'm an associate
professor at chemistry here at the University
of Utah. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
kind of science do you do? |
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BEAL: |
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I
do bio-chemical research and organic
chemistry. |
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ASPIRE: |
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Is
it research, theory, or experimental? |
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BEAL: |
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It's
experimental research. We don't do much
theory. It's imperial research. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
makes your science important? |
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BEAL: |
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Well,
I think that one thing is important
about the work that we do, is we are
manipulating chemical structure using
organic chemistry [which] makes compounds
that can teach us about biology and
the more we know about living systems
the better we are prepared, for instance,
dealing with health issues when they
arise and infectious diseases or hereditary
diseases. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
made you decide to go into the field
you study? |
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BEAL: |
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I
was taking a AP Biology class in high
school and I found it absolutely fascinating.
I just thought that it was the coolest
thing and particularly when my high
school professor was explaining how
vision works, the physiology, he was
describing... how a photo chemical reaction
causes structural changes in a particular
molecule that leads to the sense of
vision. I thought it was very interesting
how he was using chemistry to explain
biological phenomenon and that's what
got me interested in bio-chemistry and
I've been pursuing that ever since. |
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ASPIRE: |
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So
what's your academic background? |
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BEAL: |
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I
got me bachelors degree near my hometown
in North Dakota, University of North
Dakota and then I went to the California
Student Technology (CalTech to most
people) to get my PhD where I received
my PhD in chemistry in 1994 and after
that I went to Harbor University and
a postdoctoral fellowship. After my
PhD I did two and a half years of research
in the chemistry department at Harbor
and after that I took a position here
at the University of Utah. |
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ASPIRE: |
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How
exactly did you come to the U of U?
Did they advertise to you? |
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BEAL: |
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Yeah.
I subscribed to a magazine called "Chemistry
and Chemical Engineering News"
and in the back, probably ten or fifteen
pages of that magazine are ads for various
jobs in chemistry and both academic
and in industry and there was an ad
there from the University of Utah and
I responded to that ad, sent an application.
They contacted me for an interview and
I came here and gave a two day interview
in the department. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
do you like most about your job? |
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BEAL: |
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I
think probably the interaction with
the students, I mean I think that's
really the fun nest part of my job and
it's kind of multilevel. My interactions
with the students in the classroom are
a certain sense of satisfaction of seeing
students understands some of these concepts
for the first time. My interaction with
students in the research; abs where
we can do experiments together and I
see them sort of develop as scientists
and I start to use the scientific method
come up with our own hypothesis, come
up with their own experiments to test
those hypothesis. I really see them
become mature scientists and that's
really fulfilling to me. |
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ASPIRE: |
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Do
the students ever give you new ideas
by asking unfamiliar questions? |
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BEAL: |
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Absolutely.
The creativity of the students and students
asking questions are one of the main
forces that drive a research forward
now. And that's the beauty of doing
research in an academic setting. You
have students come and participate and
they're not so much influenced by current
dogma and they come up with creative
new ways of looking at things and that's
exactly how we do as much as creative
research in work. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
do you like least about your job? |
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BEAL: |
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Comities.
Comity work that actually, when have
an organization like the chemistry department,
we have a department head, chair of
the department. But he's like one of
us, really. His position is really not
high in the higher ranks of the department
so the way the department is run is
really not a true high achy but groups
of us come together to solve a particular
problem as groups called comities and
I solve many of them. I solve a lot
of problems that are not directly related
to our educational or research mission
but of course they are indirectly related.
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ASPIRE: |
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Like
administrations or a problem with a
computer somewhere. |
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BEAL: |
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Yeah.
Like for instance we have a problem
with our stock room (8/16/02), keeping
track of all the things that are in
our stock room, the account's balance
and so on and so forth and that's the
amount of scientists. I'm not really
interested in trying to solve that problem
but you know our department are run
by scientists and we then have to make
sure that the people that are charged
by the various components of the department
that allow to research to take place
for doing their job and that's not that
much of work. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
hobbies do you have outside of science? |
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BEAL: |
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I'm
actually very much into hiking and backpacking
and fly fishing. I do a lot of fly-fishing.
Actually, I do a fair amount of gardening
these days. I have a pretty elaborate
garden at my house. I do ski on occasion
as much as I probably could or should
with those mountains that we have. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
advice would you give to an aspiring
scientist? |
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BEAL: |
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You'd
have to define that question differently.
At what level? Are you trying to talk
about someone that's trying to find-? |
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ASPIRE: |
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Trying
to find out what you like. Your interests
or trying to get into laboratories- |
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BEAL: |
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So
when you ask me to give advice to an
aspiring scientist. What- |
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ASPIRE: |
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To
find out what you're interested in for
science. |
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BEAL: |
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I
think that... |
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ASPIRE: |
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To
find out what field you're interested
in. |
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BEAL: |
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Ahh.
I see I see. Well, I mean obviously
to take classes in various types of
science and make sure that you come
in contact with chemistry and biology,
physics and math and take it seriously.
Think of this as something that you
could potentially do for your whole
life. I think when I was taking courses
when I was in junior high and high school,
I was actually relatively naive about
what one could do as a scientist. To
be honest I think when I was in high
school I really thought that if you
were really interested in biology the
only thing that you could really do
is be a doctor. There is a profession
where someone that's obviously interested
in biology and lead a comfortable life
and have a comfortable living. But there
are a lot of other things that one can
do in science. So my advice would be
to seek out opportunities to come in
contact with the material and with the
people that do it. Seek out mathematicians
and find out about what they do in their
daily life. Seek out biologists or physicists
and ask them what they do and what is
their lifestyle like. What is there
day to day work like. As well as familiarizing
themselves with the material. What is
physics? What is math? What is biology?
What is chemistry? |
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ASPIRE: |
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Alright,
thank you for your time. |
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BEAL: |
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Sure. |
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