"TOP" UNIVERSITY SCIENTISTS DO TEACH

(An edited version of this article appeared on the Editorial pages of the NEW YORK TIMES on June 13, 1995.)

THOMAS DEVLIN*

Professor of Physics at Rutgers University

Ten-thousand students were enrolled in courses taught personally byAmerican and Canadian physics professors who worked on the discoveryof the top quark announced in March. Night and weekends, via planeflights, computer links and tele-conferencing, faculty atuniversities across the continent searched for this elementarybuilding block of nature in experiments at Fermilab in Illinoiswhile carrying out a full range of teaching activities at home.

This contradicts the currently fashionable assertion that high levelresearch at universities necessarily results in neglect ofundergraduate teaching. Elected officials, writers and TVjournalists hopped on this bandwagon to persuade students andparents that they are victimized by universities with strongresearch programs. A Pennsylvania legislator proposed a law todictate classroom time for professors. The Philadelphia Inquirerclaimed that high tuition charges subsidize research equipment andsalaries of non-teaching professors. This echoed a CBS televisionsegment on "60-Minutes," in which Leslie Stahl accused theUniversity of Arizona of this and other abuses. Stahl's verbalaccusations had little to do with physics, but background scenes ofphysics laboratories and apparatus left little doubt that it wasamong her targets. Arizona's response, largely unnoticed, pointedout, among other CBS distortions and errors, that no tuition is usedfor research. On the contrary, "80% of the equipment used byundergraduate science students was paid for by research grants."

No hard evidence exists to support media accusations, but scientistsare alarmed. In January, speaking to the Universities ResearchAssociation, Neal Lane, director of the National Science Foundationwarned that we must improve our teaching. All agreed, but several ofus urged him to investigate the validity of the media assertions. D. Allan Bromley, presidential science advisor during the Bushadministration and president-elect of the American Physical Society,expressed similar thoughts recently at Rutgers. Again, I objectedthat no evidence of widespread abuse exists. Dr. Bromley wiselypointed out that it does not matter what I think; the issue is thepublic's perception. I decided to get some data on the subject.

The top-quark discovery identified over 800 scientists from manycountries with some claim to excellence in research. I sentquestions to all in this group with regular faculty appointments atforty-four U.S. and two Canadian universities. With shamelessarm-twisting, I got data about all 123 men and women in this targetgroup. I sought a "snapshot" of their teaching activity when thetop-quark was announced. Here are the results:

• 103 taught regular lectures, tutorials, recitations or laboratories for 9,734 undergraduates;
• 26 taught advanced classes for 216 graduate students, and
• 98 supervised the thesis work of Ph.D. candidates.
• Of the twelve without regular classes that semester, three hold full-time administrative posts, and one was recovering from a serious illness. The other eight were on sabbatical leave for full-time research and training of graduate students. They will resume classroom teaching in the Fall.

In nearly identical words, many emphasize that "all lectures [andmost recitations] are taught by faculty." Most agree with one whosaid, "I love teaching, and I think it important to teach physicsfrom a working physicist's viewpoint." "My office hours for[students] are *anytime*." Their typical, self-imposed work week isover sixty hours. "I am proud [of my work on] the Top discovery ...I am proud of my undergraduate and graduate teaching." Threereceived awards for outstanding undergraduate teaching.

Many devoted a lecture to describing the top-quark work. "Studentswere excited [by the news reports and by] having a professordirectly involved in the research." Sixty percent volunteeredinformation about out-of-class activities essential to education:advising, course development, textbooks, admissions and high-techupgrades to teaching laboratories and lecture demonstrations.

Several teach "Saturday Morning Physics" to high school students.One is co-founder of the "Teachers Academy ... devoted to bringingaccess to high-quality science and math teaching to ... every one ofthe 400,000 children in Chicago's schools." Others taught summer"pre-physics" to disadvantaged students in Philadelphia and Texas.As soon as the "Jupiter Impact" pictures came in, they appeared onthe Internet through the efforts of one of these physicists workingwith the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia's Science Museum. Anothercollaborated "with the med school to develop new electronics for PETscans."

In the decade leading to the top-quark discovery, hundreds ofundergraduates worked on the project in part-time or summer jobs atuniversity laboratories. These are apprenticeships, and nobody hasinvented a better method of education. The best way to learnscience is to spend time with scientists doing science.

We are mistaken in portraying the university as a teachinginstitution. It is a learning institution, and learning must takeplace at all levels from the newest freshman to the most seniorprofessor. How can one learn from someone whose own learning is adusty, distant memory? The Canadian author, Robertson Davies,observed that "Intelligent societies have always preserved theirwise men in institutions of one kind or another, where their chiefbusiness is to be wise, to conserve the fruits of wisdom and to addto them if they can." In our society, universities serve thisfunction. Through our students we seek to conserve wisdom and tospread its fruits, and in our research we seek to add to them.