In Scott Strobel's opinion, one of the biggest challenges in traditional scientific training is what he calls "the problem of ownership." Rather than initiate projects themselves, students are customarily assigned to laboratory activities that are a small piece of a very big puzzle.
"It becomes overwhelming to them; they don't have a sense that they `own' it, and as a result they don't have curiosity about it," said Strobel, who is a molecular biophysicist and biochemist at Yale University.
To help fix this problem—at least for some undergraduates at Yale—the new HHMI professor has designed a novel research experience that will provide not only intellectual ownership of a piece of science, but potentially legal ownership as well. Joining forces with his father Gary, a plant pathologist at Montana State University, Strobel plans to take a dozen undergraduates, including women and minorities under-represented in science, on a week-long expedition to a rain forest in Costa Rica, Bolivia, Peru or Ecuador, where they'll scour the ecosystem for microbes that produce chemicals that might be used as antibiotics or put to other good uses.
"One thing I'd really like to do," Strobel added, "is take a student who is from the continent where we're planning to go—to help them see what their own land has to offer the world."
During the summer after their rain forest exploration, the students will purify and characterize the compounds they collected and assay them for useful activity.
"This is a perfect open-ended, exploration-based research experience that will train undergraduates in the scientific method and may inspire them toward a career in science," said Strobel.
It's unfortunate that not every high-powered research scientist is thrilled to be teaching undergraduates—and changing this mindset is a goal of the HHMI Professors Initiative. "I've always valued education, and I take teaching seriously," said Strobel, whose own research centers on analyzing the structure and function of RNA. The Yale students agree; Strobel was honored in 2004 with a prize for teaching excellence in the natural sciences based upon student nominations.
Strobel's research career has been highly productive and has garnered many awards. In 2004, the journal Nature published his report of the crystal structure of a novel catalytic RNA. One commentary on that work said that it "may lead to many discoveries, ranging from new information on how RNAs behave to new ways to prevent or treat genetic disorders."
