As a fourth-grader, Sarah L. Simmons kept a lab notebook detailing dissections of mussels, clams, and sea urchins. Once in college at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, Simmons began doing research with the professor who taught her introductory biology class, an experience that left her with a keen desire to combine research and teaching. Just as she finished a PhD in botany at the University of Texas at Austin, a job came up that she couldn’t resist. Among other things, Simmons administers UT’s Freshman Research Initiative, a program that allows students to work in a lab during their first year. She writes about the value and feasibility of such programs in this month’s Critic at Large column.
John Morris (far left) didn’t know anything about research when he began his neurology residency, but an opportunity to study a rare familial dementia soon changed his outlook. By 1984 he’d ...
