Capecchi Inspires Students

Mario Capecchi, the University of Utah's first (and probably only) Nobel Prize winner for Medicine and Physiology, spoke at a kick off event Wednesday night. The Diversity Office asked Capecchi if he wanted to speak and Capecchi, despite his busy schedule, shuffled things around to talk about how diverse students from across the nation should be interested in science and study at the U.

The students were in town because of a national conference hosted by the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science. Instead of treating this as an ordinary convention at the Salt Palace downtown, the U's Diversity Office brought more than 250 students from Puerto Rico, California and other places up to the Rice Eccles Towers, part of the Stadium, and introduced them to cultural performers from Salt Lake City.

Capecchi was brilliant, both funny and insightful. He really seemed to be encouraging U students and focused as well on the recent market crash and how researchers are constantly struggling to get funding.

He focused his keynote address on how resources at the U helped him achieve his Nobel Prize last year. He really connected with students by telling them his own first experiences in America.

Background information on Capecchi:

He grew up in Italy during World War II. While his mother was in prison as a protester, Capecchi wondered through the streets of Italy and through orphanages before his mother found him a few years later.

He came to the United States and lived with his mother, aunt and uncle before attending a Quaker school and later studying at Harvard University. He was beginning research and teaching responsibilities at Harvard when a U professor convinced him to move to Utah and study at the U.

About 20 years later, Capecchi has published numerous studies on 'knock-out' mice technology, which allows for researchers to grow animal models with certain diseases or traits to study from early on.

Parts of Capecchi's speech:

"I had no education up to that point. I was an Italian, and I was considered to be stupid because I couldn't speak English. I couldn't read or write English.

My teacher constantly told my aunt and uncle that I wasn't college material. 

by 7th and 8th grade, I was becoming academically advanced. 

(Later)

The other message...let me talk about the actual nature of science itself. What I was working on today was pretty different that what I was working on five years ago; learning new things, more of the problems we see are a result of science.

Anyone can win a Nobel Prize, and in this room I hope there's more Nobel Prizes.

(Capecchi's discussion of later school)

It's wonderful to see so many people of different colors in one room. You have no idea how happy that makes me.

I was inspired to science. The prep school, a Quaker school I went to, we were being indoctrinated to solve the world's problems.

I went into political science and realized that political science had nothing to do with science, so I switched to physics.

I was at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) at the time when molecular biology was just beginning.

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Students who attended were very interested in what Capecchi said. Tim Bauer from a college in California and Peter Melendez from a university in Texas were both studying a form of science and felt inspired by Capecchi's speech.

"If I were a biology major I would totally be signing up for Utah," Bauer said.

Why is this important?

Minority students are literally that, a minority. Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, Hispanic and other ethnic groups are small at the U. The numbers of minorities who are graduate students in fields of science is very limited at the U.

Professors and deans and department chairs showed up to the kick-off event trying to encourage these undergraduate students to study at the U.

In further encouragement, the Office of Diversity brought ethnic performers into the Eccles Towers to give students a taste of culture in Utah.

The photographer who was with me had to leave before Capecchi's lecture was over, and missed the performers. I felt so bad for the photographer, Anna Kartashova, because the performers were amazing and I know she would have loved taking photos of it.

-There was a kid's group from Jackson Elementary that danced traditional Hispanic dances to music, twirling skirts and waving sombreros. 

-Next followed a Hawaiian hoop dancer in traditional dress. He is apparently the world champion.

-And last but not least was some dancers from the Pacific Islanders Student Association. One of the dancers startled me when I was trying to take some pictures. He came up and stuck out his tongue and shouted loudly. All the dancers were amazing, but this one dancer's photo turned out surprisingly well. The rest were blurry. 

Hope you all enjoyed this. If you want other information about the event or Mario Capecchi, check out www.dailyutahchronicle.com