Alumni & Friends
Bethel Focus
A Magazine of Bethel University
Launching Top Scientists
How Bethel fuels the intellect and the spirit
By Brian Beecken
Bethel physics graduateMatt Borg ’03, a Ph.D. candidate
in aerospace engineering at Purdue University, is soon co-publishing
critical data yielded from experiments using a hypersonic Mach-6
quiet wind tunnel. The research will aid in design of more advanced
aircraft. Borg recently guided the chief administrator of NASA, Mike
Griffin, on a tour of the test system.
Related Articles:
Harvard, Yale, MIT, Purdue, Stanford, Oxford. These are just some of the prestigious graduate schools where, since 1997 alone, more than 180 Bethel graduates in biology, chemistry, or physics have gone on to earn doctoral degrees. Another 140 alumni are currently in the doctoral program pipeline. How can a relatively small university like Bethel foster so many excellent graduates? Brian Beecken, coordinator of the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and chair of the physics department, has an inside view:
What is true today was true more than 20 years ago when I was an undergraduate physics major at a small liberal arts school: most people then, as now, think that if you are serious about science you must go to one of the big universities. And most people then, as now, are wrong.
Recently I read with great interest an article by Richard Ekman, Ph.D., president of The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), which represents more than 580 private schools. I met Ekman a few years ago after our Bethel physics department won the national CIC Heuer Award for outstanding achievement in undergraduate science education.
The article was interesting not merely because of my connection with the author, but because he addresses a serious issue facing the United States: a chronic shortage of scientists and engineers. In response, most proposed solutions concentrate on assisting large institutions in producing more science graduates. Ekman, however, in his article, “Small Colleges: Tops in Training Scientists,” points to a different path. Contrary to common and long held beliefs, he makes a persuasive case that “the most efficient producers of new scientists turn out to be small colleges and universities.” 1
My own discovery
Alumnus Makes Headlines in Cancer Research
Bethel
graduate Tim Hallstrom ’91, now a cancer researcher and assistant
professor in the pediatrics department at the University of Minnesota,
made history in January by announcing the discovery of “how
key genes cause breast and ovarian cancer cells to either multiply
or die,” according to the U of M website. “The discovery
[in conjunction with colleagues at Duke University] opens the door
to developing drugs that target these E2F1 genes,” the announcement
said. Hallstrom’s research attracted wide media interest, and
was the cover article in the January issue of the preeminent cancer
journal Cancer Cell.
Hallstrom tells the Bethel Focus that his interest in molecular biology was sparked by summer research he did with the late Bethel biology professor, Weldon Jones. Propelled by this new interest in research rather than medical school, Hallstrom went on to graduate studies at the University of Iowa and post-doctoral work at Duke University, where he began his quest to understand the cellular mechanisms triggering cancer growth.
When I was in college, my professors often held up graduate school as the ultimate goal for the aspiring scientist. Certainly then, as now, the graduate degree is normally necessary for a science student to become a research scientist. So as a college senior, I naively started checking out graduate programs in physics at various large, research-oriented universities. I was appalled to discover that the undergraduate physics majors at these institutions required nearly twice as many physics courses as my little liberal arts school had offered. How was I to compete? Was my preparation hopelessly inadequate?
Feeling betrayed, I confronted the chair of the physics department at my school. Dr. Earl Swallow told me that studies showed a much higher percentage of small school graduates, compared to those from the large institutions, eventually receive Ph.D.s. How could this be? Dr. Swallow thought the reason lay in the one-dimensional education received by large-school physics majors—their schedules being crammed with science and math courses. As a result, he asserted, these students burn out. Liberal arts-educated students have an advantage, he surmised, because of a more balanced college experience.
Today, I’m the physics department chair at Bethel University, and I am asked similar questions about how a relatively small, liberal arts school can compete with big universities in preparing graduates in science. But at Bethel, there are more answers.
Preparation for career and for life
First, we truly do strive to educate whole and holy persons at this
university. Students not only study the liberal arts, but they do it
the context of a Christian worldview that facilitates academic and
spiritual growth. The result should be graduates who are mature and
have a broad academic background—in addition to a solid grounding
in the sciences. When a high percentage of our science majors go off
to graduate school and succeed, they demonstrate exactly what we expect
from our graduates.
My colleague, Chemistry Department Chair Ken Rohly, agrees. “We help students think not only about learning science but also about what it means to be a follower of Christ and relational human being,” he says. “We prepare students for life after Bethel.”
Second, we faculty members at Bethel must be true to our calling. The Lord has entrusted us with the growth and development of young men and women. Because we take this calling very seriously, we spend time talking, listening, advising, pushing, and even cajoling our students. As a result of this personal care, our students do not get lost in the vastness of an impersonal educational system.
Prepared for the Best Graduate Schools
Physics In the last 10 years, 47 Bethel physics grads have entered graduate programs in physics or engineering, all with full-ride scholarships. Nineteen have earned doctorates, and at least another nine are current Ph.D. candidates. Prestigious graduate schools seeking Bethel students have included Yale, University of Illinois, Ohio State, University of Colorado, Purdue, University of Wisconsin, Michigan State, University of Arizona, and Loughborough University (England).
Chemistry Over the past decade, 75 percent of Bethel chemistry majors have pursued advanced study. Chemistry alumni are in competitive doctoral-level programs such as organic chemistry at Stanford University (Brian Loy ’06); molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at Yale (Jamie Schwendinger ’07); and cellular biology at Notre Dame (Amy Rohly ’06).
Biology Since 1997, 67 percent of Bethel biology graduates have entered graduate programs, and more than 50 percent have gone on to doctoral degrees. Bethel alumni advancing to competitive doctoral programs have included David Rhee ’05 (biological and biomedical science, Harvard); Vicki Bidell ’03 (M.D./Ph.D. program, Mayo School of Medicine); and Holly Chrisman ’93 (postdoctoral appointment at Oxford University, England).
Presidential Science Initiative Seeks to Maintain Excellence
The Presidential Sciences Initiative for Bethel University has a goal of $2 million in gifts and pledges payable over the next five years. The proceeds, to be evenly divided among physics, chemistry, biology, and math/computer sciences, will be used to maintain a high number of student-faculty research opportunities, as well as to keep lab equipment and facilities state-of-the-art. The Presidential Sciences Initiative is part of the “Taking the Next Step” campaign. If you are interested in making a gift to this initiative, please call 651.638.8050, or email Sandy Clark at s-clark@bethel.edu.
Research, research, research
Third, Bethel offers significantly greater research opportunities. At big schools, undergraduates rarely have an opportunity to be mentored in research by professors, who instead work primarily with graduate students. Nevertheless, it is well known that positive research experiences are a primary factor in directing undergraduates to a career in science. As a result, Bethel’s faculty constantly search for ways to involve students in research.
For the past three summers, I have worked as a guest scientist at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Albuquerque, N.M. In 2006, I took thousands of frames of data using a prototype of a newly designed dual-band infrared imaging spectrometer. I brought the data back to Bethel, and to one of my students, Ben Todt ’07, who worked on analyzing it for his senior research project.
Last spring, I sent Ben’s final paper to Paul LeVan, Ph.D., the head technical advisor for the branch where I work. He was so excited that he called me and exclaimed, “This paper is too good for an undergraduate to have done!” But Ben was an undergrad, and with a great deal of coaching, that was his paper. He and Dr. LeVan are co-authors on the research article just published last fall.
Top students
Ben is not an isolated case. A few years ago, for example, I worked with a very promising student for two summers on both a NASA project and an Air Force project. That student, Thomas McElmurry ’01, went on to receive a full-ride fellowship in physics at the University of Illinois, one of the top 10 physics programs in the country. His success there did not go unnoticed. Since then, two more of our students have been sought by the physics program at Illinois, and one was granted a full-ride fellowship.
One of the great blessings of teaching at Bethel is the outstanding quality of students we professors work with. Last year I taught an advanced course in statistical thermodynamics for junior and senior physics majors. At the start of many a lecture, I would look out at my group of 14 students, awed by the intellects in that room: three of the four seniors went on to receive fellowships at prestigious graduate schools. Most of the juniors were awarded competitive summer internships at universities such as MIT, Purdue, and Cornell.
What an honor to help such talented young people see the beauty inherent
in the physical world that our Lord created. What a privilege to be
part of their development as scientists!
Yes, students can get an excellent science or engineering education at Bethel. It will include significant mentoring by dedicated faculty and be part of a complete Christian liberal arts experience. Those big, major universities are not designed to provide such an education. And not coincidentally, it is Bethel’s approach that prepares a higher percentage of students for careers in science.
1 University of Business Online Magazine, April 2007