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By
Amina Ramadan
Thomas Landefeld, P.h.D is a
distinguished
scientist and professor of biology at the University of California
Dominguez Hills. In between teaching, lecturing, and being an Amazing
Kids! mentor, we are delighted that he could find time for an interview
with Amazing Kids! to talk about his life and work in this amazing
field!
AK:What do you do as a
scientist? What exactly is your field?
TL:My career has had two
main facets as a
scientist, first as a professor and researcher. As a reproductive
endocrinologist, which is a scientist that studies the hormones
involved with reproduction, my area of research was the control of a
woman’s reproductive cycle. As such, I worked with animals as a model
system and used the findings for information about humans. When I was
doing this, I was at a medical school, so I also taught students who
were studying to become doctors. The second phase of my career as a
scientist was in administration where I helped to design and implement
programs for students who wanted to be scientists. For example, I
administered federal projects that exposed students to scientific
research as college students preparing them for professional and
graduate degrees.
AK: What do you like
best about your career? What do you not like so much?
TL:: The best part about
what I do is
helping students to achieve their educational goals, regardless of
whether it is training them directly in my laboratory or overseeing
their progress in other laboratory settings. Along the way, I also
provide assistance in their courses and studies since doing well in
classes is critical to their successes. The only thing that I do not
like is that I cannot help more students due to there only being 24
hours in a day!
AK: Why did you choose
to pursue a job as a scientist?
TL:: I was always
intrigued by not having the answers to questions and science provided
an avenue to do that, i.e. experimentation.
AK: We understand that
you have founded
programs to help kids attain their dreams of careers in science. Can
you tell us some more about these programs?
TL: : I have worked very
much with groups
that have been poorly represented in science for a number of reasons.
This includes females and individuals from different ethnic groups such
as Black, Hispanic and Native American. The federal government
developed funding programs designed to include individuals from these
groups as a way to address this under representation. These programs
not only expose the students to research and other activities that will
help them continue their education after college but also provides
funding to support them along the way. As a researcher and
administrator, I was able to obtain these programs at my institution
and therefore help our students.
AK: What motivated you
to start these programs?
TL: I have always been
interested and
involved in efforts to include everyone, regardless of their
background, in educational programs as education is truly the key to
success.
AK: We hear you are a
mentor through Amazing Kids! What does your mentoring comprise?
TL: Mentoring is a
crucial component of education. ALL of us need mentors and in fact
ALL of us can be mentors.
Moreover, mentors are like tattoos, once you have them you have them
forever. Mentoring is very time and labor intensive BUT it is so
gratifying and actually so easy. One just has to care about someone and
do what you can to help them get where they want to go to be a mentor.
AK: What influence did
your childhood have on your choice of career and other occupations
today?
TL: Interestingly, I was
always very
interested in athletics and actually saw science as a component of
that, e.g. health, movement, injuries, etc.. In fact, I had planned to
be a science teacher/coach, up until my senior year in college and at
that time decided that the study of hormones was the specific area that
interested me the most. I applied to a PhD program and here I am. The
key is to always do the best you can in your classes AND to always work
towards your goal of what you want to do.
AK: Any advice to
aspiring scientists out there? To kids considering an occupation in
science?
TL: Try science
regardless of what your
interests are. You may never know if you like it or not if you never
really give it a shot. Too often young people are turned off to science
because of: 1) the negative stereotype of scientists as portrayed by TV
and movies as a geek or nerd. That is NOT the typical scientist.
2) The idea that math and science is too hard. It requires a different
type of studying but it is not that it is necessarily harder. Give it a
shot. There is nothing better than being the first person to discover
something for the first time, and there are still so many things left
to be discovered, especially in medicine, health and disease.
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