Campus Reacts to Strobel

BOZEMAN, MONT.—The deliberate violation by a Montana State University scientist of EPA regulations on the release of genetically engineered organisms has evoked sharply different reactions from scientists and top administrators on campus. While colleagues criticize him in harsh terms, university officials say they welcome the increased attention to the impact of federal regulations on science. At issue is plant pathology professor Gary Strobel’s June release into the wild of a genetically altered strain of the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae. Strobel admits he did not wait for EPA approval to release the bacteria into a group of elm trees and that he willfully violated the federal regulations. MSU President William Tietz, speaking before the university had completed its review of the case, said he is not upset about the notoriety Strobel has brought to the university. “We have a major controversy and a major set of circum stances coming together at MSU and I’m not sorry to see that,” he said. “We have a harmless bug that has the potential to solve a nations and international problem, but it’s bound up in red tape,” Tietz said. “It is an issue that has to be dealt with somewhere, and it may as we'd be here.” Added John Jutila, MSU’s director of campus research, “What you’re hearing here is a scientist who is angry and frustrated with the rules. I understand his feelings, but it does not justify his violation of the rules.” Strobel’s transgression has earned him little sympathy from his colleagues. All of them condemn his transgression and accuse him of endangering science’s delicate public trust. Strobel’s actions do not represent any sort of trend toward breaking the rules, they insist, but rather should be seen as the actions of a man who pushed his luck too far. “He was just being lazy,” said fellow plant pathology associate professor David Sands, whose laboratory is near Strobel’s. “If he were civilly disobedient, why would he have applied [to the EPA] at all?” Sands last year earned one of only 13 approvals granted by the EPA to release altered bacteria into the wild. A Scientific Loner Sands and Strobel are among the most respected scientists on campus. Strobel holds the university’s only endowed chair and is state director of a program run by the National Science Foundation for smaller states that provides grant money for young scientista with no track record in research. Even though Strobel has worked at MSU for 23 years, Sands said, “He’s somewhat secretive about what he does, and that’s a fault. The rest of the department is very close, and we discuss things.” Strobel is a scientific loner, Sands added, with “an almost studied ignorance of the rules.” Microbiology department chairman Norman Reed, who has known Strobel for 22 years, said, “Gary has had some very clever idea over the years. But I wish he hadn’t done it. I don’t think anything will be gained.” Much has already been lost, said Tom Blake, barley geneticist and assistant professor of cellular and molecular biology. “I would hope the public can view scientista as cautious people,” he said, “but this is a case when the public will rightly view scientista as not cautious. “We’re dealing with a new science here, and there’s a lot of things we don’t know,” Blake said. “I don’t know any other scientist, other than Gary, who would willingly break federal regulations.” Strobel’s actions have evoked complaints from scientists around the country about restrictions imposed on their work by current regulations on environmental release. But Montana State scientists were unanimous in their view that federal rules have been getting easier—not harder—to meet. According to plant pathology de partment chairman Don Matbre, who has known Strobel since both men were graduate students at the University of California at Davis in the 1960s, “they were very restrictive to begin with and they’ve been greatly decreased over the years. We’re moving into an era of less restriction.” “It’s not that restrictive at all,” said Sands. “All the guys at EPA want is 90 days for a review. They’ve been very easy to work with.” Several of the MSU scientists said they disagreed with Strobel’s contention that waiting for EPA approval would have imposed an unacceptable delay of up to one year on his research. “This was not a life-threatening situation,” Jean Starkey, associate professor of microbiology who specializes in cancer research, said about Strobel’s work, “and I find it surprising he finds it so important. I wouldn’t condone it, but I would feel more sympathy for people who bend genetic engineering guidelines for treating people with fatal diseases." Asked about the possible effect of Strobel’s actions on graduate students and junior faculty members, Sands said, “I’m not worried for them. They’re the first ones to see through it [improper actions]. Students are not living in an ethical vacant lot.” Added department chairman Mathre, “This was strictly one man. I feel no sense at all among my colleagues that they condone his breaking the rules.” Brock is a reporter for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

Campus Reacts to Strobel

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