Research in Dr. Benkovic's view. How many of us think in his way?

Posted 09:15 PM, March 22, 2007, by tksigdel

I have attended a number of events as a member of Stanford community which I will remember for long. Such events include two reception ceremonies for the two Nobel Prize winners Dr. Andrew Fire and Dr. Roger Kornberg and a talk given by Dr. Paul Nurse (Rockefeller) this year, and a talk given by Dr. Steven Benkovic (Penn State) last year.

I had an opportunity to spend some time with Dr. Benkovic while taking him out to lunch when he was invited to give a talk at Miami University. During the lunch, I asked him about the secret of being able to be active in research with such an amazing vigor. He responded saying that for him the research never felt like some work, rather he felt as if he is a small kid in a room full of toys.

About a year later, I was sitting in the meeting room in the Clark Center where Dr. Benkovic was presenting his work on T4 DNA replisome. The room was full of Stanford University veterans, junior faculty, and students. It was one of the lifetime experiences when I saw Dr. Benkovic appreciating Stanford University researchers for convincing him to make some changes in his research and a gift of E. coli at the end of his sabbatical at Stanford in early 1980s. Nobel laureate Dr. Arther Kornberg was the one who said Dr. Benkovic was probably the best person to start the research on the replisome assembly.

As a junior postdoc it was wonderful to watch demonstration of such respect and appreciation from such revered names in the field to each other.

I do not know how many of us take research the way Dr. Benkovic does. For now, I have to end this entry as I have to go back and play with my toys in the lab.