"You have had a long and exciting day today and a strenuous
journey to reach this event. Congratulations to you for your achievements and
for all of the accomplishments ahead of you. You truly are among the best minds
we have in this country. And you occupy a privileged position, one with great
opportunity and responsibility.
I want to close today with a big-picture question, a really
big-picture question: WHY? I want to invite you to think about why you are here
and how you are going to take your scientific aptitude and experiences and—as
football fans say here at Notre Dame—move them down the field. Each of you has
pursued extraordinary work, and you will do more excellent work in the future. But
I’d like to invite you to think about why the science that you do is important
and what motivates you to do it. To be a great scientist, you need brains and
creativity, but you also need persistence, drive, and motivation. I’d like to
talk about finding these motivating intangibles—pulling them out and giving
them a good hard look.
So, my question for you: “WHY?” What is it all for? Why have
you worked so hard at school, in the projects that have gotten you here today? I
hope that the research that you have pursued was rewarding; I’m sure that it
was. But I also know some of the other reasons that students give for studying
science, math, and engineering, things like: to gain admission into one of the
world’s best universities (like the one that you have visited here today), to
get the highest grades in the class, to make your family and friends proud, or
just because you’re good at it. Or maybe it’s to get a good job, earn a high salary, or
launch some tremendously successful and lucrative company. Or perhaps the
reason is the stuff we hear from politicians—that developing science and math
leaders will rescue our economy and keep us from slipping in the great
international competition of science and math test scores.
Well, I’m here to tell you, as someone who has dedicated her
life to the pursuit of science that it’s not about any of those things, or at
least it shouldn’t be. All of those things: college admission, pride, financial
success, miraculous inventions that save our economy—they are all secondary.
They might come to you, but if they do, they come only if you obey some deeper
principles, if you pursue science for loftier, more personal and social reasons.
It is a deep and meaningful purpose that gets a scientist
like me out of bed day after day after day, over the duration of an entire
career. It’s hard for money alone to do that, and after you’ve graduated from
college that getting-into-college bit wouldn’t be a good reason any more, and
even being the super hero that saves the US economy isn’t enough stir the
imagination for a lifetime of scientific work.
So what does? I’m going to describe four deeper reasons that
speak to me—maybe some of them speak to you too. Let’s reflect on these for a
few moments before we leave here today, before all of you head off to your next
big accomplishment.
1) The #1 reason that I am a scientist is a fascination with
nature, a fundamental desire in my soul to understand how nature works, so that
I can appreciate its beauty, creativity, and value. I am inspired to find ways
to foster nature, mimic nature, and protect nature. I fundamentally believe—and
know as a scientist—that all human endeavors take place in and depend upon
nature, so I want to use it wisely and protect it for the benefit of humanity. There is nature in molecules—in this is hemoglobin, for
example. And there is nature in people living real lives outside of the
laboratory. The earth, the universe, and all of the things that humans do in
that universe are part of nature. Science is the study of nature, of our very
being, and the stardust that we are made of. I find this fascination with
nature to be a profound notion, one worth getting excited about each morning.
2) Another reason I love being a scientist is for adventure.
When I was young, I followed the career of the first woman astronaut, Sally
Ride, very closely. Sally was a physics major at Stanford and flew in the space
shuttle as a mission specialist in 1983 and 1984, right around the time that I
was getting interested in science. I found her efforts to break physical and
social barriers and her eagerness to visit the frontier of space highly
inspirational. Because of Sally Ride, I flirted for more than a decade with a
career in astrophysics, at least until I discovered ecology as a sophomore in
college.
In my career now, adventure comes in the form of field
research and an opportunity to study beautiful places and creatures. For
example, my work takes me to the west coast of North America, to the shores of
Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and to the beautiful oak savanna and dune
ecosystems close to home here in the Midwest. Other ecologists study coral
reefs, tropical forests, or the frozen tundra. What amazing places to get to
spend time! For others, adventure might come at the bench of a genome
sequencer or a nuclear magnetic resonance machine, but a sense of exploration
is there regardless. In my opinion, scientists should strive to learn or
experience something new every day, harnessing that youthful sense of adventure.
3) A third reason why many scientists, myself included,
perform research is to help people. Science is the ultimate humanist endeavor
because there are few issues that confront on our modern society that do not
have a scientific issue, question, or dilemma at their core. Humans struggle to
overcome poverty, disease, and injustice around the world, and science has
tremendous potential to alleviate this suffering. For example, colleagues of
mine at Notre Dame are studying the evolution of malaria that is resistant to cloroquine,
a once-effective treatment for malaria worldwide, in an attempt to increase
survival rates in drug resistant areas.
4) But the fourth—and most important motivator for me
personally—is participating in a grand challenge, an issue of profound
importance to many people and places—something that does not have an easy
answer and requires the best and brightest minds to solve.
The grand challenge that occupies my time and attention is
global climate change. This same grand challenge occupies thousands of
scientists around the world and together—from our diverse perspectives and
different disciplines—we are piecing together the implications of climate
change and what we might do about it. I take great pride in the privilege to
participate in solving one of the largest and most vexing issues facing
humanity.
Lest politicians tell you otherwise, the consequences of
climate change are all around us, and they are profound. Thanks to steadily
increasing emissions of greenhouse gases from human activity and lack of
progress to combat those emissions, we now expect warming of 7-11 degrees Fahrenheit,
on average, around the globe by the end of this century, with some places experiencing
warming upwards of 13 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s a world that within 100 years
will be as different from today as today is different than the last ice age. A
big deal; a big challenge.
Let’s just take two recent examples from close to home:
We know that climate change will influence the severity of
storms, and sea level rise will increase the damage caused by storm surge, much
like we saw less than two weeks ago with Superstorm Sandy. Droughts in the
south and southwest US, predicted by global climate models, also set the state
of Texas ablaze in 2011, across the entire state from east to west.
My own research explores how climate change affects our
ability to use and conserve biological resources, from endangered species—like
this Karner blue butterfly—to pollinators—like bees and wasps—to pests of trees
and crops. I do this work because it stimulates my personal desire and
professional obligation to make the world a better place by studying and revealing
a grand challenge. My students and I have discovered, for example, reasons why
species may not be able to track changing climate by moving closer to the
poles; we have revealed strategies for ecosystem management that might reduce
the vulnerability of some species to climate change; and we have shown where to
expect non-linearities and surprises in species’ response to climate warming. These results will help us live better in the world and
preserve it for the future. They also send warning signals that climate change
must be confronted before it reaches disaster proportions, proportions so large
that we cannot adjust to them or keep them from progressing and accelerating.
So, I invite you to consider the reasons why you are here
today, why you have made it so far in a prestigious science competition, and
the reasons why doing science will propel your forward. I urge you to think
about where your personal fulfillment comes from and how to incorporate that in
your studies and career.
I have given you four reasons that I have for being a
scientist: a love of nature, a sense of adventure, a desire to help people, and
the responsibility to address grand challenges. I feel the last of these is critically important, and I urge
to spend your time and efforts on scientific issues of social significance.
Fortunately, there’s significance in nearly every facet of scientific research,
some value or benefit to society. The race to find the Higgs Boson is a grand
challenge; reconstructing the structure and function of past life is a grand
challenge; global climate change is a grand challenge. Figure out what grand
challenge compels you; be able to explain to other people; and focus on that
value to drive you forward.
When we all get out of the bed in the morning inspired to do
great things, all of the other rewards will simply follow as a consequence. Best wishes to you in your future adventures. Be thankful
for the good fortune and great promise that you all embody."
