By looking back on the illustrious Fred Gould career at 47 in Entomology NC State University, it is easy to assume that it has taken the direct path to scientific success. Not the case.
Of course, he is a professor of agriculture at William Neal Reynolds, co-founder of the Genetic and genomic academyformer executive director of NC State Center for genetic engineering and societyWinner of the O. Max Gardner Prize of the UNC system for research making the greatest contribution to human well-being, and a member of the prestigious Academy of Sciences.
But as Goud will tell you, his academic path began to refuse admission to the medical school, take odd jobs, travel to Europe, make an instant decision to go to his higher education and live in a long Island bread truck. (Yes, really.)
Perhaps these early errors have given an overview of the many students that Gould has guided since. To show their appreciation, his former students have traveled across the State, across the country and as far as the Netherlands for a recent celebration of symposium and retirement in honor of Gould.
“The two most common words I heard about Fred during the symposium were” mentor “and” empathy “,” said Jennifer Maxwell, former student of NC State, former doctoral student of Gould and current member of the faculty at the Elgin Community College in Illinois.
More stories behind the scenes on Gould emerged during the celebration of the evening. His peers, colleagues and students agreed that Gould is a deep thinker. But did you know that it is also “a little Motorhead”? That he knows comforting food? And that he has an artistic side?
1. We may have Berkeley to thank for his arrival at NC State.
Gould pursued interdisciplinary research the day he set foot for the first time on the NC state campus.
He had finished a doctorate. In ecology and evolutionary biology of New York University in Stony Brook, where he had applied because he liked the idea of being paid to go to higher education (through an assistantship) and because a friend had an additional copy of the paper candidacy form.
After graduating, Gould obtained a postdoctoral scholarship from the National Science Foundation to study how insects adapt to the natural defenses of plants and insecticides.
“When I was in Stony Brook, I lived in a bread van,” said Gould, who wore a beard and a ponytail at the time. “I had NSF funding for a one -year project I wanted to do. I needed two sponsors of the faculty to do the research: a toxicologist and researcher in biocontrol. I wanted to go to Berkeley where I thought I would adapt to culture. ”
Unfortunately, it turned out that Berkeley’s researchers in these two disciplines did not get along well. Only two other universities had the combination of these two disciplines. One was the state of NC.
The specialist in the Biocontrasse of the State of NC NC, Bob Rabb, met Gould and then led him through the campus in his Dart Dart “at around 5 miles per hour” to meet his counterpart in toxicology, Ernie Hodgson. By saying that before talking about the Gould project, he had a company to take care of with his colleague, Rabb gave the key to his mountain cabin in Hodgson so that he could take his family on vacation.
Interdisciplinary collegiality caused BOULD to be welcome. He carried out the NSF project in NC State in 1977 and joined the University Faculty in 1979.
“It was a pleasure to be part of a real community,” he said.
2. He finds nothing as practical as a good research model.
The entomologist Clyde Sorenson, formerly a Gould student, says that her colleague is a deep thinker who lives by the maxim: “A model is a lie that helps you to see the truth.”
Gould relied on this expertise with Ryan Kurtz, who came to NC State to obtain a doctorate. in entomology. Kurtz knew agricultural research. He has been working on field tests since the age of 15 in the Mississippi delta and had graduated from the Mississippi State in agricultural agricultural management.
“What I did not understand is how to transform biology into mathematics,” explains Kurtz. “Fred sat with me and traveled the mathematics of the population of the population. It was as if scales fell from my eyes. ”
As vice-president of agricultural and environmental research for Cotton Incorporated, Kurtz now supervises the research program on the cotton production of the Industry Group, leading a team of six scientists who explore means to make cotton agriculture more profitable and more sustainable.
“I would like to thank Fred for working with real implications on the farm,” explains Kurtz. “He says the information you needed to hear, put it in context – not what you wanted to hear.”
3. He knows comforting food.
Many of those of the celebration of retirement told stories of the kindness and support of Gould. Martha Burford Reiskind, longtime collaborator of Gould at Genetics and Genomics Academy and the Genetics and Genomics Scholars program, says: “He is there when things go south.”
Sometimes his support was in the form of traditional Jewish comforting food: Kugel.
“This is the community, to obtain one of the sets of Fred de Kugel,” explains J. Royden Saah ‘, a research partner who worked with Gould on Gene Drive Research for seven years.
“I am eternally grateful to have learned much more about Fred’s science and humanity.”
The support of Gould also took the form of a garden on the campus planted in memory of a longtime staff member.
Sara Villani, colleague of Entomologie de Gould in NC State, will always remember when he met her in Geneva, New York, for her father’s funeral, Mike, former student of Gould and professor emeritus in Cornell.
“The things I learned from my father that I also learned from you,” she said. “The art of sweet question. Give credit. Make other in chiefs. “
4. It is “a bit of an engine”.
The white Mustang of Gould 1990 is its vehicle of choice. And it drives faster than the 5 miles per hour that the mentor Bob Rabb did this first day on campus, colleagues noted. A photo of mountain shared during the celebration has a particular meaning: it is on the porch of the Rabb cabin in Edgemont.
Each summer for more than 15 years, Clyde Sorenson and Gould have made the trip to Crossnore in the mountains of the county of Avery to teach a course of insect of natural history and ecology on the ground.
Between the assignments of web worms, Sorenson has once left Gould driving a borrowed Mazda Miata. Their high -speed trip that resulted from it – on the winding Blue Ridge Parkway – left Sorenson “terrified”.
Off road, Gould is known to make a sensation by swinging with a rope in a 63 -degree mountain stream. He likes an “easy hike”, teased Sorenson, calling Gould “the grandfather at the top of Grandfather Mountain”. Returning, Gould will take advantage of more time with his partner, Shelley, his daughter and his son-in-law, and two grandsons.
5. He has an artistic side.
Molly Renda, former DH Hill librarian and exhibition designer, appreciated working with Gould on “De Teosinte to tomorrow”, “ which has drawn the history of agriculture of the ancestor of corn in the era of modern biotechnology. A joint effort of the libraries of the State University of NC, the Genetic Engineering and Society Center and the Gregg Museum of NC State, the exhibition included a labyrinth of corn quarter acre at the NC Museum of Art. “Fred loved driving the tractor,” said Renda. He also worked on the seminar and the accompanying publication.
“It was the cornerstone of my career,” said Renda, who said to Gould: “Welcome to the world of retirement.”
Although Gould has cleaned his office, don’t be surprised if it is spotted on the campus. He will be at the Crafts Center, working on his pottery skills, a recovery hobby.