Chapter 06: A Love of Teaching and Discovering that Administration Can Impact Research
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Description
In this chapter, Dr. Bowen talks about his involvement in teaching and administrative duties at MD Anderson, his love of teaching, and his work “helping nonmedical, nonscientific people learn more about cancer.” He also discusses his involvement in securing research grants for the institution.
Identifier
BowenJM_01_20000327_C06
Publication Date
3-27-2000
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - Overview; Professional Path; Building/Transforming the Institution; Education; On Education; Activities Outside Institution; Leadership; On Leadership; Mentoring; On Mentoring; Formative Experiences; Evolution of Career
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Transcript
James M. Bowen, PhD:
But almost an accident got me first involved in M. D. Anderson's administrative activity. Through the influence of Dr. Clark and the very excellent stewardship of Dr. Felix Haas, the institution received a grant that allowed a peer committee to sub-award small research grants to investigators based on an internal peer review of the quality of their projects.
Louis J. Marchiafava, PhD:
Now, what period was this?
James M. Bowen, PhD:
This was in the mid-1960s. We are talking 1965-1966. I had met, through some other reason, and I don't recall exactly how we had met, the head of Anesthesiology whose name was William Derrick. Dr. Derrick was a wonderful man. He became a good friend and a mentor, and he asked me if I would serve as one of the members of the Institutional Research Grant committee. This would probably have been in the mid to late 1960s. I spoke with Dr. Dmochowski about that and Dr. Dmochowski thought that this would be a good idea. It would be a contribution to the institution, and it also might give virologists some insights and data to access these funds. And so, I was appointed to the Institutional Research Grant committee. It was the first administrative role that I had outside of virology, although I was already acting as deputy head of virology simply because I was close to Dr. Dmochowski, and if he asked me to do something, I tried to get it done for him.
Louis J. Marchiafava, PhD:
Before you go on beyond this period, there is one question that popped up at me. I notice that you had an association with the dental school.
James M. Bowen, PhD:
Yes. That was in another persona that I worked to develop. And that was, while I was at Oregon State in graduate school, I was a teaching assistant for practically the whole time I was there, along with my research assistantship. And I love to teach. I love to be in front of the classroom. I love to be with students. I loved everything about teaching. And so, one of the aspects that I had discussed with Dr. Dmochowski in returning to M. D. Anderson was would I have opportunities to teach? And he said, yes, he would recommend me for a membership in the growing affiliation with the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and he had some associations with Baylor and with the dental school where I might be able to do some teaching. And just about that time, one of the professors at the dental school developed an affiliation with the dental science program with the Air Force out of Wilford Hall in San Antonio, and they developed a curriculum to teach master's level dental pathology, and one of the things they had to have was a microbiology unit. But they had no money to pay anybody to teach microbiology, and they went looking for somebody who would do it for free. And when I got the opportunity, I went! They asked Dr. Dmochowski if he would do it and he did not have time. And so, he asked me if I would like to do it for him. And that developed an almost career-long affiliation with the pathology group at the dental school. And I taught virology and microbiology and microplasmology for a time to that group, just for the love of teaching.
Louis J. Marchiafava, PhD:
Did this have to do with cancer of the oral cavity?
James M. Bowen, PhD:
Well, only peripherally at the time. In order to complete a master of dental science curriculum in pathology at the dental school, they had to have a unit in general microbiology, and we taught actually very little cancer at that time. The pathologists taught their own oral screening and things of that sort. I taught straightforward virology. We talked about . . . [break in audio tape]
James M. Bowen, PhD:
We were speaking of the kind of teaching we were doing at the then science institute. It was one of the many opportunities that came to all of us who were interested in teaching. We got to teach graduate students. I also taught in the Baylor/St. Luke's Medical Technology Program. It was great fun teaching the dentists. I made a few trips over to Wilford Hall to give special lectures in virology for the people over there, and there was a chance to go around among different universities and talk to people. And somewhere along the line, one of the personal loves that I developed was helping nonmedical, nonscientific people learn more about cancer, because Dr. Clark always impressed on us that a patient was an essential part of the treatment team, and that the more everyone knew about cancer, the better off we were. And, in later years, and this will come up again, in later years, I spent a lot of my spare time just talking to anybody who wanted to hear -- to rotary clubs and to professional organizations and chambers of commerce and so forth about cancer, particularly about cancer prevention. And that interest led me to one of the roles that I had at M. D. Anderson in my later career that I am the most excited and the proudest of, and we will talk about that later on. You had asked me about teaching in the dental school. That was just one of those opportunities that many of us academics sought because it gave us a chance to be in front of a classroom. But I taught very little oncology. I taught straight virology. It was very good for me because it made me be the best student in the class, because things were developing so rapidly in all the fields of biomedical sciences, and in virology in particular, that you had to really keep after it to keep up. And the best incentive to keep after what was going on in your own field was to have to talk to groups about it. And that was what we did. Returning to the Institutional Research Grant Committee, the evolution of that experience was after about one year on that committee, Dr. William Derrick asked me if I would be vice-chairman and a chair of the group when he was out of town, which I did. And ultimately, when he retired as chairman, I became chairman. And that was basically the first administrative role that I ever had at M. D. Anderson, and made an interesting discovery. This was one of those discoveries that a scientist makes that is both tantalizing and horrifying, and that was that I really enjoyed administration, and I felt like I had a natural flair for it because I like the enabling part of it. You know, I loved to be a part, for example, of awarding this institutional research grant, and then one year later, reading the progress report to see what could have been done. And, of course, scientists very quickly learned the politics of doing that and they always have some sort of language in a progress report that says without support of the Institutional Research Grant, we would not have been able to do this and such. We would not have been able to publish this work. We would not have been able to make this discovery. We would have not been able to apply for a much larger grant which we have just received. And I am thinking, wow, this is a way that basically in our spare time, we can make a particular contribution towards advancing the institution in fields that we have no personal ability in. So, I really liked that committee work. Dr. Dmochowski was very supportive in this. He expected time given back in return. But there was an oversight committee for all research in the institution. He made me the departmental representative for that group called the Research Committee, which basically was the approval mechanism for any research that got done at M. D. Anderson. There was a clinical research group and a basic science research group. And all projects when Dr. Clark was president, all projects, had to be reviewed by a peer group, a representative group called the research committee and approved or there could be no institutional facilities or resources allocated to that project.
Louis J. Marchiafava, PhD:
Now, this was your first taste of administrative work, is that right?
James M. Bowen, PhD:
It was my first taste of administrative work.
Louis J. Marchiafava, PhD:
Well, you enjoyed it, as you have stated.
James M. Bowen, PhD:
Some people viewed it as a burden, but I didn't.
Louis J. Marchiafava, PhD:
That is rather unusual.
James M. Bowen, PhD:
Yes, and it actually bothered me a little that I liked it! But there I was, you know. And much later in my career, I would look back on that as an important kind of turning point in my ultimate association with M. D. Anderson.
Recommended Citation
Bowen, James M. PhD and Marchiafava, Louis J. PhD, "Chapter 06: A Love of Teaching and Discovering that Administration Can Impact Research" (2000). Interview Chapters. 681.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/681
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