Visiting Professorships Bring Mutual Benefits, Yet Are On The Decline

On The Decline Author: Neeraja Sankaran The time-honored tradition of visiting professorships -- invitations extended to faculty taking sabbaticals from their own institutions to teach and do research here -- will once again be in evidence as schools reopen in the fall. As throngs of students return to their classrooms and laboratories, they may find that certain familiar faces are missing or replaced by new ones, or that there are new names and courses listed in the fall directories. The practice of university faculty members' taking extended leave to go here "is an important part of the academic culture," comments Robert Birgeneau, a professor of physics and dean of the School of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As Alan Teramura, dean of the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, points out, many universities make provisions in their schedules for the absence of full-time faculty members to take sabbatical leave. For example, he observes, during this period -- which can last anywhere from a few months to a year -- "the home university will give some financial support" to the individual. Despite the mutual advantages of these visits, however, many academicians note that such arrangements are on the decline, mainly for financial reasons, forcing some longtime programs based on these collaborations to fold. The two-way benefits of such visiting appointments are self-evident, maintain the many researchers who participate in these arrangements -- whether as hosts or as guests. "It is a healthy way of exchanging ideas and people," avers Birgeneau, whose laboratory is hosting a visiting professor -- Robert Gooding, who is taking a six-month sabbatical from the department of physics at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada -- this fall. "My lab does experiments in the area of high-temperature superconductivity, and we invited Gooding to come here because he does research on theoretical aspects of the same subject," explains Birgeneau. "Visiting scientists are good for the [host] institute, as the visitor exposes the staff to unique or new ideas," states Arnold L. Gordon, a professor of oceanography and senior scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y. "This is done more often in an informal way -- around the coffee pot or in the lunch room -- [which affords] prolonged contact rather than brief encounters at meetings. Such exposure is particularly important for the development of junior staff members," he maintains. The visit of Vladimir Shirinsky, a scientist from the Cardiology Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, to Northwestern University Medical School has already accrued benefits, according to D. Martin Watterson, chairman of molecular pharmacology and biological chemistry at the school and a research partner of Shirinsky. "By addressing scientific questions from a different perspective," Watterson attests, "Vladimir has actually catalyzed collaborations among scientists within Northwestern." Watterson's main research interest is the molecular basis of calcium regulation and Ca2+ in signal transduction. He and Shirinsky, whose expertise is in the area of molecular cardiology, are working on a project that looks at "the effects of development and cyclic stretch -- which is what happens to muscle cells when aortic vessels are pulsating -- on the gene expression of proteins that regulate smooth-muscle contraction," explains Watterson. "My laboratory has been studying calcium binding proteins and calmodulin, while [Shirinsky] has studied the myosin, actin, and other proteins that make up the 'motor' in muscles, and the physiology of smooth-muscle contraction," Watterson remarks. He points out the importance of these different areas of expertise for a fuller understanding of the physiological processes under investigation. "Interchanging researchers among laboratories allows us to pursue certain joint questions, which may not have been otherwise addressed due to limitations of expertise and time," he stresses. Shirinsky, who came to the United States in May, is also a recipient of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Research Scholars Award. Another beneficial reason Watterson mentions for inviting scientists is for the purpose of transferring technologies and techniques. A case in point is Jacques Haiech, the director of a biotechnology program at the University of Aix in Luminy, France, who is participating in an ongoing series of two-month visits to Northwestern, where he conducts independent research and runs a workshop series. "Besides doing research in the calcium binding protein field, he is an expert in informatics, automation, and mathematical modeling," elaborates Watterson. "Recently we began a cross-departmental research program on drug discovery centered in our department, and one of the things [Haiech] will be doing is instructing [this department] in various automated assays." The advantages of these collaborations are mutual; guests at another institution reap as many benefits from the visit as they have to offer, maintain numerous researchers holding visiting appointments. "For me it will be learning as much as teaching," says Robert Perlman, a professor of pediatrics and pharmaceutical and physiological sciences at the University of Chicago, who just completed a five-year term as the dean of the division of biological sciences. "In recent years I have become interested in the interface between biology and behavior, and so am going to an environment where people are doing work in these areas," he relates. Perlman has chosen to spend the first half of his six-month out-of-residence status as the guest of Arych Routtenberg, a professor in the department of psychology at neighboring Northwestern. Perlman hopes to spend the rest of his leave time at the University of Oxford in England. "They have a pretty successful program in 'human sciences,' which offers a combination of such subjects as biology, anthropology, and demography," he relates. "I want to observe how that operates, and see how they make connections. "I'm interested in [eventually] developing something similar here at the University of Chicago." The time away from their regular appointments serves as "a period of renewal and enrichment" for the faculty who avail themselves of the opportunity, comments Phillip Sharp, head of the biology department at MIT. As the director of a joint program with the University of Rome to exchange visiting fellows and teachers, George Bernard, chairman of the oral biology department of the University of California, Los Angeles, College of Dentistry, attests to the advantages of entering international collaborations. "Over here we do more animal work, and basic research. In Italy we do a lot more clinical work because the institutions are under government control and they have a wider choice of patients," from whom samples may be obtained for research and testing, he elaborates. In addition, "they have outstanding equipment -- saws and grinding instruments for preparing bone samples, and sophisticated microscopes [such as] transmission, scanning, confocal, and electron probe types -- which are particularly useful for studying mineralized tissue," he points out. Bernard has a background in both dentistry and anatomy. His research interests cover a wide area, including osteoporosis and the genesis of bony tissue. Besides the more obvious gains of a visiting appointment to both the host university and the visitor, Gordon points out that such an arrangement can offer advantages to the home institution of the visitor, as well. "The visitor may be [able to] finish up some long-outstanding papers for publication," as a result of a collaboration with new colleagues, or simply because of the change of scene, he suggests. "Also, the person may return with a fresh outlook, or new ideas invigorating both themselves and the home institution." Gordon himself just completed a visiting assignment at the Naval Postgraduate School, an academic institution in Monterey, Calif., where he occupied the Office of Naval Research Chair in Arctic Marine Science from January to August. But while there is near universal agreement on the benefits of being a visitor at or entertaining visitors from another institution, various university officials note that the custom is on the decline at many schools. "If there is a trend to be observed, I would have to say that the numbers of visitors have decreased," comments Birgeneau. "When academic budgets get tighter and funding more limited, [hosting visitors] is one of the first things to go. Nowadays, if we have visitors at all, they are more likely to be supported by [investigators'] research budgets," he notes. Teramura concurs that there is a continuing slump in visitors owing to budgetary constraints: "We used to have a rotating visiting fellow program at our botany and mathematics departments, where we routinely brought in scientists to teach and do research here," he says. "Unfortunately, we have had to give it up due to a shortage of funds. Nowadays, he adds, if a department wishes to host a visiting professor, it makes arrangements on an individual basis, rather than through a program. Perhaps as a consequence of funding cutbacks, there are additional reasons for lower numbers of visitors, according to Sharp. "I have a suspicion that it is because life in research has become more intense; many people are concerned about their own individual labs and are reluctant to leave because they are afraid to lose momentum," he contends. Certainly, Sharp observes, taking sabbaticals is "not as common as it was 10 to 20 years ago. This is a pity, really, because I think there is a lot to be learned by going to work and live in another community." He notes, however, that while he has hosted several visitors over the years, he himself has never taken an extended sabbatical during his 20 years at MIT. "I never took that 'relief' time off, though most of the faculty here have done so at some point in their careers." (The Scientist, Vol:9, #18, pg.3,5 , September 18, 1995) (Copyright © The Scientist, Inc.)

Visiting Professorships Bring Mutual Benefits, Yet Are On The Decline

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