In a nutshell, mentors:
The most common response to the question ‘What inspired you to take up science?’ – given by respondents including Dr Colin Berry, Peter Cochrane, Jorge Mayer, Simon Singh and Christopher Llewellyn Smith – is that they were inspired by teachers or mentors. Typical of such reponses are Alom Shaha‘s description of ‘gifted teachers, whose enthusiasm for their subjects was relentless and infectious’, and Michael Wilson‘s account of ‘inspirational and rigorous teachers in high school, who engendered an insatiable intellectual hunger for factual knowledge, and who encouraged observation and deductive thinking’.
Survey respondents often point to one or two particular individuals who made a lasting impact. Josef Penninger, for instance, was inspired by ‘a great mentor and teacher’, and argues that ‘most of us became what we became because of one dominating person, who moved us into a certain direction’. Frances Downey, James Enstrom, Pat Norris, John Zarnecki and Anton Zeilinger describe inspirational mathematics and physics teachers, Thomas Addiscott and Eliot Forster discuss inspirational chemistry teachers, and Kenneth Freeman had ‘a very capable and very overworked teacher’ who taught him mathematics, physics and chemistry. Meanwhile, Professor Sir Colin Berry, Keith Davies and William Ledger found inspiration in their biology teachers.
Here is much more, via www.politicaltheory.info. Here is the answer of Sophie Petit-Zeman: falling in love with the teacher.
you may be find an impressive list of people like Gauss and Einstien who do not seem to be inspired by any teacher or people like Galois and Hermite for whom teachers were a negative influence. i would think that curiosity and inner urge may be important in many cases and some learn and achieve in spite of teachers.
true for me. tyler taught me undergrad intermediate micro. now i am a professor of economics.
I’d tend to agree with Joan. I’ve been good at math (and so science too) since I was a kid. There are things that can knock you off the track, like deciding you want a clearer career path, better pay earlier, more societal impact, easier relationships, more fun in college, etc. The mentor response is a cliche thing (on par with wanting to “help people” applying to med school), but hey, what do I know? I’m a physicist because it solves my existential angst.
This might be the case for profs who stay in academia, but I don’t think it’s true in general. I’m currently an undergrad entering my senior year at the California Institute of Technology, and it really seems like most of the people I know here (including myself) study science because we’re fundamentally poorly adjusted, lack decent social skills, and probably are psychologically damaged due to these things; basically because we’re so broken that we can’t really do anything else.
I am studying for an economics PhD due to Russ Roberts, but he “merely” opened my eyes to the way I already thought. It seems that people may take up a trade for a number of reasons…
People always ask how they can increase interest in science. They don’t have to. All they have to do is drive fewer away from it.
I have to mention to Joan’s comment above that I got my undergrad in Religion and ended up with grad degrees in math and statistics and am doing my PhD in cognitive science. So it is possible to change the other way. (And I know a substantial number of people who changed in the same direction! I am not the only one.)
Overall I don’t think that mentors hurt, but they are not the only way. Not necessary but in some cases sufficient.
Do we really need more scientists? This sounds like the usual lead-in to a pitch for the desperate shortage of scientists looming just over the horizon, as it has for the last 40+ years. Engineers and programmers I can see, but not scientists. There are enough underemployed ones already. Further, there is very little difference in the quality of most who do complete Ph.D.s and those who stop with a B.Sc. or Masters, making it easy to generate more scientists by simply letting more into grad school. I just do not see there is a reason to encourage more to go this way. Many companies will promote experienced people with a lesser degree and work experience to higher levels.
The argument for the role of mentors has always struck as me as specious. The people making the argument, and espousing their own wonderful mentor, come across as people who would find a way to create the appropriate story to fit the socially correct model, regardless of what had actually happened to them. If they are overrepresented in the ranks of academics it is more a reflection of the personality that would create such a socially approriate stroy rather than any role played by a mentor. At least, that is my perception, but I never found anyone to play the role or felt any great desire for a mentor. The lack of a mentor did not hinder my development as a scientist, although it may have impeded by career path, particularly because of the offbeat topics I chose to work on.
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