The Charlotte Jewish News - September 2014 - Page 17
Chemistry Nobel Laureate to Visit Charlotte
By Amy Krakovitz
Prof. Martin Chalfie, recipient
of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chem
istry, will be coming to Charlotte
on September 10 as part of the
Echo Foundation’s “Celebrate the
Power of One!” award gala, panel
discussion, and student dialogue.
The odd thing about Chalfie’s
award is that he is a biologist,
though, not a chemist. But this
irony fits well within his view of
how non-scientists perceive the
sciences and scientific experimen
tation.
“We learn about these great
names - Newton, Einstein, Flem
ing, and others - and we get these
notions that aren’t accurate,” he
says. Like that scien
tists are geniuses with
an innate ability for
discovery; that they are
somehow different
from the rest of us. Or
that their experiments
work all the time. We
rarely hear about scien
tific failures (which are
very valuable for the
scientist). That scien
tists think differently
from the rest of us, and
that they work alone, in
a vacuum. And finally,
it would appear that
successful scientists are
all white men.
The student dialogue
at UNC Charlotte on
September 10 is geared
to dispel these fallacies.
Prof Chalfie will be
joined by Prof. Peter
Agre, recipient of the
2003 Nobel Prize in
Chemistry. Prof. Agre
is also a biologist and
the two Nobel Laureates will par
ticipate with nearly 1,000 students
from UNC Charlotte and area
high schools. Their dialogue will
mesh with the evening’s panel dis-
cusion on “The Future of Sci
ence,” a key element in The Echo
Foundation Voices Against Indif
ference STEM Initiative. Dr.
Derek Raghavan, president
Levine Cancer Institute at CHS,
and member of Temple Beth El,
will moderate.
Prof. Chalfie has other myths
to dismiss as well. He wants po
tential students of science to
understand that all your accom
plishments in high school don’t
have to be perfect. He, in fact, did
not get exemplary grades in high
school chemistry or physics. In his
senior year of college, he even
tried out various subjects outside
of the sciences, including law
courses, literature courses, and
theatre courses. But he eventually
followed his main interest in biol
ogy.
He has an easy way of talking
and relating to a non-scientist and
a charming self-disparagement
that one might not associate with
a Nobel Laureate. He tells the
story of the day he received the
prize.
“You know, if you’re fortunate
enough to do good work, people
do this terrible thing to you —
they start saying, ‘Hey, you might
get the Nobel Prize.’ Then, when
the first week in October rolls
around, you lose a little sleep.
“Last October, I didn’t sleep
well the night before they an
nounced the medicine prize. But
no call came. They announced the
chemistry prize two days later.
Well, on that night, I heard this
phone ringing in the distance but
assumed it was a neighbor’s. So I
woke at 10 after 6 the next morn
ing and assumed the chemistry
prize had gone to someone else. I
then opened my laptop and went
to Nobelprize.org to see who the
schnook was who’d gotten it. And
there I saw my name along —
along with Osamu Shimomura’s
and Roger Tsien’s. I was the
schnook!” (From an interview
with The New York Times, Sep
tember 21, 2009)
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The famed letter of permission from Prof. Chalfie s wife, Dr.
Tulle Hazelrigg. She is pictured here with their daughter,
Sarah.
The easy use of Yiddish comes
authentically, as Martin Chalfie is
the grandson of Ashkenazi Jews,
three of whom immigrated to the
US from Eastern Europe (one
grandparent was bom in the US).
The family celebrated the major
holidays and Chalfie and his
brothers all attended Hebrew
School and were Bar Mitzvahed.
One moment from his child
hood stood out for him. “I ... re
member coming out of Temple
during the High Holy Days and
hearing her (his maternal grand
mother, Madeline Friedlen) say
that the entire story about Abra
ham’s willingness to sacrifice
Isaac was ridiculous. She thought
that any person that would give up
their child for any reason was just
nuts. This was my first introduc
tion to questioning religious be
lief, and it stuck with me.” While
he hesitates to draw a straight line
from questioning dogma to the
scientific curiosity that made up
his life, it seems that looking at
things with a new perspective was
instilled in him at a young age.
One of the things he says he has
always appreciated about Judaism
is what he calls “common sense”
and what the rest of us call
“pekuah hanefesh. ’’ The idea that
no law is above the health or life
of any one person gives Judaism
“an element of sanity,” like having
“an escape clause for your well
being.”
Judaism meant so much to him
that, though his wife is not Jewish,
he wanted to be married by a
rabbi. The one he did find con
tacted him when he received the
Nobel Prize to let him know that
he was, in fact, the second Nobel
Laureate that he had married.
Prof Chalfie’s wife. Tulle
Hazelrigg, is also a professor of
Biologocial Sciences at Columbia.
It was some of her work that he
used in the study that earned him
the Nobel Prize. He worked along
with Osamu Shimomura and
Roger Y. Tsien in discovering the
GFP (green fluorescent protein), a
naturally occurring substance in a
certain species of jellyfish. But he
include some of his wife’s exper
imental results in his study, with
her permission. She included
some requirements when
granting that permission
and has he says now,
“We still debate whether
these conditions were ac
tually met.” (See picture
of her permission letter
on this page.)
The student dialogue
with Professors Martin
Chalfie and Peter Agre
will take place at McK-
night Auditorium on the
UNC Charlotte campus
from 9-11 AM on Sep
tember 10. The Panel
Discussion on “The Fu
ture of Science” will take
place at McGlohon The
ater in Spirit Square
from 6-7:30 PM. Dr.
Derek Raghavan, presi
dent, Levine Cancer In
stitute at CHS and
member of Temple Beth
El, will moderate.
The discussion will
precede the awarding of
The Echo Foundation Award
Against Indifference to Jerry
Prof. Martin Chalfie
Richardson and The Echo Foun
dation Family Legacy Award to
Walter Cramer. The Family
Legacy Award will be accepted
by Cramer’s grandson, Kurt
Waldthausen, on behalf of
Cramer, who publicly condemned
Hitler’s persecution of Jews and
joined his friend, Carl Goerdeler,
the mayor of Leipzig, Germany, in
the July 20, 1944 failed attempt on
Adolf Hitler’s life. A reception
will follow at the Foundation For
The Carolinas.
Tickets for the awards event
and reception are available by
calling The Echo Foundation at
704-347-3844. «
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