Oliver Smithies visited the campus today and gave a one-hour lecture titled "Where ideas come from". (You can watch a version Prof. Smithies' talk presented in Lindau, Germany, earlier this year here.)
The 89-year old Nobel laureate delighted a captivated audience with a journey through his long career. Recounting his childhood days in the UK, he highlighted the impact that good teachers have on the life and career of scientists. He encouraged researchers to seize the opportunity of teaching themselves, stressing how much he benefited himself from thoroughly dissecting the reading material for his courses:
Always teach from the original papers, don't just read reviews. Watson & Crick's paper is one page long and you can teach anybody, not just scientists, what it means.
"Oliver-smithies" by Mapos (Markus Pössel) - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
In the 1950s, Smithies invented a form of molecular sieving electrophoresis trying to separate insulin from precursors and other proteins, when he discovered that there were more than the previously described 5 proteins in human plasma. This discovery changed the direction of his research project, marked the transition to becoming an independent researcher, and culminated in the development of targeted gene replacement in mammalian cells (1982-85).
Throughout his career, Smithies frequently overcame technical challenges by being persistent. He encouraged scientists to take risks and to overcome their fear of failure:
If you encounter a difficult problem, you have to learn and get instructions. You can do anything if you put your mind to it.
Smithies fondly remembered how he benefited from sharing scientific ideas and reagents, and encouraged his audience to do the same:
Science is about sharing. Nine times out of ten it is productive and brings joy. One time out of ten you get screwed, but you get to enjoy the nine [other times].
At the end of the lecture, Smithies, who still performs experiments in his laboratory and flies planes in his spare time, advised younger researchers to follow their passion:
If you ever find yourself in a situation where you don't enjoy what you're doing every day, go talk to your advisor and ask him to work on something else. If he doesn't want you to do that, find another advisor. [...] You only live once.
Smithies' PhD work on an "extremely precise osmometer [...] has the dubious distinction of never being cited" and he only began his groundbreaking experiments on gene replacement at the age of 57. Leaving the lecture hall, I wondered how this outstanding researcher would have fared in today's research environment, in which young scientists need to publish early, frequently and with high impact to turn their passion for science into a career.
Disclaimer: Quotes are as I remember them and may not be perfectly accurate.
References:
- Full biography of Oliver Smithies
- Oliver Smithies lecture in Lindau, Germany, in July 2014
- 20 minute conversation between Oliver Smithies and Diego Bohórquez at the 2011 Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau
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