THERE are scientists — and then, there are individuals like Dr Rita Colwell who do not seem to fit into conventional expectations.
YOUNG FANS: Dr Colwell prepares for a photo session with her many young fans after a book reading session at the State Library.
She has — quite literally — changed the world. Her pioneering work with cholera has helped define modern scientific understanding of the ecology of infectious diseases, the use of advanced technologies to halt their spread and created the basis for environmental and infectious disease risk assessment used around the world.
In recognition of this, Dr Colwell was awarded the prestigious Stockholm Water Prize in 2010.
In addition to being the first woman to serve as the director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 1998 to 2004, she has held many advisory positions in the US government, nonprofit science policy organizations and private foundations as well as in the international scientific research community.
Dr Colwell is an overseas member of Malaysia’s Global Science & Innovation Advisory Council (GSIAC) — a joint initiative between the Malaysia Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) and the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) — tasked with advising the government on enhancing local scientific and innovation capabilities and transforming Malaysia into a high income country, emphasising wealth creation and social well-being.
As one of three US science envoys to the Muslim world, Dr Colwell was recently in Kuching as part of her visit to Malaysia to enhance US-Malaysia relations as well as explore avenues through which the two countries can collaborate through science and engineering.
She turns 77 this year but as thesundaypost discovered, this down-to-earth grandmother’s passion for science burns as bright as ever.
Fostering relations
Having worked with international students and scientists throughout her distinguished career, Dr Colwell understands well the importance of scientific teamwork — not just because of the practical need for international collaboration but because it also helps to build friendships across global borders and cultures.
“In the 21st century when there are so many conflicts and questions — climate change, infectious diseases that seem to be global, declining resources, the need for water at a time of increasing scarcity — these are not simple problems and they are best solved with collaboration, international teams,” she said.
“We see a dramatic example in space exploration with astronauts from many nations, including Malaysia. It’s sort of the epitome of what scientific collaboration really is. When you live in a space capsule you have to be friends.”
Dr Colwell also took great care to highlight the role of science as a catalyst for furthering knowledge and discovery as well as an enabler of philanthropy.
Referring to the critical need worldwide for access to clean and safe drinking water, she said by using science to figure out how to provide safe drinking water, they could protect people from almost two dozen water-transmitted diseases.
The devastating cholera outbreak which wiped out entire villages in Haiti in the aftermath of a destructive earthquake last year is just one example of the need for science’s life-saving potential.
Reaching out
One particular area which Dr Colwell foresees potential for Malaysia-US collaboration is biotechnology because of the diverse natural resources which are abundant here.
She pointed out that there is a wealth of genetic potential yet to be explored, explaining that biotech could also be used to preserve the environment because it allows scientists to understand extract genetic coding from certain organisms and duplicate it without harvesting entire populations.
“We have to learn more about the environment and humans interacting in the environment in a sustainable way,” she said, referring to science’s great potential to further human and environmental well-being.
Dr Colwell added that this is the reason why it is so urgent to do a better job of educating the public about science as well as instilling interest in science and engineering in the next generation.
Science as discovery
She said the paradox of today’s society is that it is highly technological, yet with declining levels of interest among youth in science as a career which suggests that the solution may lie in how the subject is taught from kindergarten up to secondary school (K12).
“It’s a wonderfully rewarding career, it’s exciting. But I think the way we teach the children is much too rote memory. That’s not science; science is discovery.”
Dr Colwell said children are actually natural scientists because of their inherent curiosity about the world around them but the way science is taught in schools is based more on fact memorisation rather than on discovery and exploration.
“Somehow we have taken the system into this book full of facts and we’ve used fact memorisation,” she said.
“That’s not science. Science is really doing the experiments yourself and figuring out why do butterflies have the colours they do, and how they disguise themselves and how their genes evolve to protect themselves in that adaptation.”
Local of R&D hobbled
It is difficult to deny that the once predominantly pedagogical debate on the benefits of teaching science and mathematics in Malaysian schools, using English as the medium of instruction, has become a political hot potato which masks the dire need to nurture national scientific research and technological capabilities to a critical level where it can become a major and consistent catalyst of socio-economic growth.
Amidst the cacophony of facts and heated opinions punctuating the sphere of public discussion, official statistics show that Malaysia’s spending on research and development (R&D) continues to severely languish behind its neighbours.
In 2006, national gross expenditure on research and development (GERD) was RM3.6467 billion, or 0.64 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) — only marginally better than the 0.63 per cent recorded for 2004, and the 0.22 per cent in 1996.
By comparison, earlier this year, the Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation was reported as saying Malaysia’s Asian counterparts allocated between 2.5 to 3 per cent of their annual GDP to R&D while developed nations spent an average of 3.5 per cent.
Official statistics also suggest that although local private sector expenditure on R&D is rapidly growing, the same cannot be said for spending on R&D by governmentresearch institutes as well as institutes of higher learning which has declined significantly.
The problem is not just funding but also that Malaysia needs much more scientists and researchers than it currently has.
To achieve its ambition of attaining developed nation status by 2020, Malaysia has to address the problem of creating sustainable and favourable conditions for local R&D and innovation to thrive.
The question is how?
English in science
thesundaypost asked Dr Colwell for her opinion on suggestions that teaching science and maths in English could help to inculcate interest among youths to take up science and engineering as a career.
Proponents argue that instructing in English makes good sense as English is, by and large, the international medium of instruction for these two disciplines.
The majority of scientific journals and publications as well as related courses in institutions of higher learning are in English.
On the other hand, opponents say teaching science and maths in English would erode local language and culture. They also argue that teaching English as a language as it is now in schools is sufficient to equip students with basic mastery of the language to cope with the demands of higher education.
Drawing on her personal experience as a professor and as a first generation American citizen (her parents were Italian immigrants), Dr Colwell said that not studying science and maths in English could actually work to disadvantage those who come from non-English speaking backgrounds.
However, she also strongly believes it is important to know one’s own language and cultural heritage, suggesting that these aspects could be better strengthened through other avenues such as arts and literature.
“Culture is part of being human but when you’re in a globally competitive world, you want to be among the best — and I think Malaysia should be — which is why I’m here,” she said.
“I have former students whom I really admire and who have succeeded really well — visiting scientists from Malaysia. Why hobble them? Why tie their hands behind their backs in this foreign competition?
“That’s my message. It’s a gentle one, not an adversarial one. Do your best and allow your children to compete at the very, very top but keep the culture.”
Mutual benefit
Dr Colwell thinks the US can learn much from Asian countries about how to teach science and maths in K12. Likewise, the US’ higher education system can offer lessons to Malaysia on how to develop and support higher level R&D through the creation of level playing fields upon which the very best personnel could collaborate and complete.
“It’s important to have a transparent process for competition so that the very best and highly qualified scientists and engineers can carry out research – I think that’s what makes higher education so powerful in the US,” she said.
On investing in R&D, Dr Colwell stressed countries had to balance immediate payoffs with a long term view, adding that they should not neglect investing in the fundamentals which would eventually lead to the big discoveries and payoffs as sometimes it takes years and lots of so-called insignificant discoveries before a breakthrough discovery or application will come through.
To reap the benefits of scientific discoveries, Dr Colwell underlined the need to ensure that discoveries are able to progress further from just discovery towards developing prototypes and then allow businesses and venture capitalists to take those ideas and prototypes and use them to create jobs and incomes which can then be ploughed back into the discovery process and cycle.
She also stressed the influential roles universities could play to incubate ideas and experiments, facilitate technology transfer and provide opportunities to students and teaching staff to learn about patents and how businesses operate.
She was very excited about the potential which the Internet and online social media offered in terms of facilitating international scientific experiments and collaboration.
Dr Colwell pointed out that in the US, women are more likely to start small businesses when they are independent.
At a recent “women in biotech” event she attended, she was “staggered” to find over 300 women CEOs, CFOs and other successful leaders attending as well.
She noted it would be a “great advantage” for countries to find better ways of engaging the female workforce, and provide more of them with opportunities to be independent as a country loses at least half of its intellectual potential by not utilising women scientists and leaders more effectively.
All too soon, the interview with this amazing scientist was over. thesundaypost was awed by the world of possibilities she has opened and a tad regretful that more people did not have the opportunity to listen to what she has to say that day.
If anything, Dr Colwell is living proof that science is more alive and more exciting that what many Malaysians have become accustomed to thinking it is.
Earlier in the day, she shared her love for science with an appreciative audience of young children during a book reading session at the Lincoln Corner at the Sarawak State Library. Malaysia needs scientists like Dr Rita Colwell — and who knows, maybe one day, one of those kids will become a Rita Colwell we can call our own.