Rockin' out for science
See the guy on the far right? The one decked out in aviator shades rocking out next to Aerosmith’s Joe Perry? President Barack Obama just picked him to lead the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Francis S. Collins, who led the government’s successful effort to decode the human genome (he also happens to play the guitar) is among a handful of preeminent researchers featured in a slick six-page photo spread in the June issue of GQ. The photos are part of a larger ad campaign called “Rock Stars of Science” designed to celebrate scientists, highlight the importance of their research and draw attention to the funding needed to make their work possible.
Collins did his groundbreaking work while as director of the National Human Genome Institute in Bethesda. He’s featured with such other notables as Dr. Harold Varmus, the former director of NIH, who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of cancer genes, and Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
By featuring some of the nation’s renowned researchers alongside the likes of rockers Sheryl Crow and Seal, the hope is to make these science gurus more accessible and dare we say, cool, to the average American.
As Collins says in an interview on the Rock Stars of Science site, “I think it's a great idea to show that scientists are not all a bunch of oddball nerds.”
His fellow scientists couldn’t agree more.
“As hokey as this might be, it’s very important to portray scientists as something other than the white haired old man sitting in the lab,” said Dr. Claire Fraser-Liggett, director of the University of Maryland’s Institute of Genome Sciences and a pioneering genetic researcher in her own right.
She shared a copy of the photo spread with me yesterday while I was in her office interviewing her about some of her latest work. (Stay tuned. I’ll be writing here soon about the work she did to map the genome of the deadly anthrax microbe).
Fraser-Liggett, however, noted the spread lacked some diversity. Being GQ, a men’s magazine, that was understandable, she reasoned. But a female colleague of hers wondered, could a women in science magazine spread be next? We'll see.
Photo courtesy of GQ
Comments
great post. anything which makes scientists, and their work, more accessible is welcome. After 8 years of an anti-intellectual and anti-science administration (not to mention the rejection, suppresion and denial of scientific facts) it is great news that we are moving in the right direction...Yes We Can!
Posted by: bxdoc | July 9, 2009 10:53 AM
While I understand that this is an ad campaign running in a men's magazine, I'm wondering about a few important things missing from here:
-Why isn't there any women scientists acknowledged here? (there are female rock stars)
-Why isn't the ad running in other magazines geared towards women?
Posted by: Emily Heroy | July 9, 2009 12:42 PM
There is some good info on Francis Collins at these links:
http://atheismisdead.blogspot.com/2009/04/john-horgan-and-francis-collins.html
http://atheismisdead.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-atheists-on-francis-collins.html
Posted by: Mariano | July 10, 2009 10:50 AM
Agree wholeheartedly with bxdoc. And I would add that I wish we, as a society, would appreciate and honor the scientists whose labors, talent and dedication improve our health, environment and the like -- at least as much as we idolize movie stars and athletes.
Posted by: M. Fox | July 10, 2009 5:08 PM
Kelly,
ave you ever heard him sing? Check out all the YouTube postings about Collins - he has great sense of humor -
Posted by: Sarah Pick | July 13, 2009 11:08 PM
Sarah, I had no idea! How cool. I may just have to post a youtube clip for our faithful blog readers. ;)
Posted by: Kelly | July 14, 2009 11:09 AM
Why isn't the ad running in other magazines geared towards women?
Have you ever heard him sing?
Posted by: Grow Taller | July 28, 2009 6:52 AM