College’s Newest MacArthur Professor Upholds Tradition of Research and Teaching
Karen Hales (l) with research assistant Monica Siegenthaler '03
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4/16/2003
Contact: Bill Giduz 704/894-2244 or bigiduz@davidson.edu
Assistant Professor Karen G. Hales of the biology department has been named Davidson’s newest MacArthur Professor, a rotating professorship established in 1981 by a gift of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
“I am absolutely delighted that Karen Hales will become our next MacArthur Professor,” said Clark G. Ross, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty. “She is extraordinarily talented and gifted -- a strong and rigorous teacher, as well as a most promising researcher in the area of genetics."
The feeling is mutual. Hales said, “I’m happy that the college recognizes that the way I balance my research and my teaching is appropriate for this institution.”
Last year, in only her second year teaching at Davidson, Hales won the largest research grant ever awarded to a single Davidson faculty member—a five-year, $500,000 award from the National Science Foundation to expand and enhance her genetics research.
While working on her Ph.D. at Stanford University, Hales discovered a previously unknown gene now named "fuzzy onions" or "fzo," in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. The fzo gene is required for proper formation of sperm cells and is closely related to two human genes. The gene name stems from the aberrant appearance in mutant sperm of a structure that normally resembles an onion slice. Work on related genes continues to form a foundation for Hales ongoing research, which has shown that fzo is just one member of an entire new family of genes.
So, how does a Davidson professor balance research and teaching?
“Spend a lot of time teaching!” Hales said.
Hales’ research effort provides valuable opportunities for students. For the past year senior Monica Siegenthaler has helped Hales explore molecular mechanisms by which mitochondria are moved and shaped in Drosophila sperm cells. Siegenthaler has not only learned professional genetic research processes from the inside, she has made direct contributions of her own regarding the role of specific genes.
“I’ve always wanted the sort of close relationship with a professor that this research allows,” Siegenthaler said. “Professor Hales helps design the experiments and troubleshoot, but I’m largely figuring out things on my own, without her looking over my shoulder. It’s like we’re collaborators on the work rather than she being a professor and me a student.”
In early March Siegenthaler accompanied Hales to the annual Drosophila Research Conference, sponsored by the Genetics Society of America, in Chicago. Siegenthaler presented a poster in the general session, and also gave a slide presentation in a workshop on “Drosophila Research and Pedagogy at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions.” Hales and colleagues from three other institutions have organized and moderated this workshop each year since 2000.
Hales also develops research opportunities for her classes. Her “Genetics” class each fall includes a lab based on original experiments designed directly from current research. Her upper-level seminar, “Human Genetics,” focuses on how to read original research papers, how to correlate experimental results with authors’ conclusions, and how to write a grant proposal. She also teaches a section of the introductory course “Molecules, Genes and Cells” in the spring, with a rigorous lab that is standard curriculum in the thirteen-member biology department. Next fall, Hales will teach her first “W” (writing) class, approaching the topic of human cloning from ethical, religious, literary, economic, and other perspectives.
One of Hales’ extracurricular roles on campus is as faculty advisor to the BioSociety, which organized its second annual Charles Darwin Birthday Party last February as the biology department’s major yearly social event.
Further afield, she is a triathlete, orienteer, and former nationally ranked junior badminton player. Her Web site includes links to many varied interests, ranging from “WWII Codes and Ciphers” and “The National Steinbeck Center” to her love of tea and eclectic tastes in music and art.
Hales, a Phi Beta Kappa Swarthmore alumna, received her Ph.D. in 1997 from Stanford, under thesis advisor Margaret T. Fuller, with whom she is collaborating on her current research. Hales has won many awards and fellowships since her own undergraduate days, including awards from the National Institutes of Health and from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She was a biology instructor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the summers of 1999 and 2000. She came to Davidson in August, 2000.
The MacArtthur Professorship’s most recent holder, Assistant Professor Russell Crandall of the political science department, is recognized as a preeminent authority on United States/Latin American relations. He is the author of Driven by Drugs: United States Policy Toward Colombia, and a consultant to the U.S. Department of State.
Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,600 students. Since its establishment in 1837, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently ranked in the top ten liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report magazine. Davidson is engaged in "Let Learning Be Cherished," a $250 million campaign in support of student financial assistance, academic resources, and community life.
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