College of the Holy Cross | Holy Cross Magazine

Not one to lock herself away in the lab, biology Professor Mary Lee Ledbetter has placed equal emphasis on both her teaching and scientific research at Holy Cross. Encouraging her students to take what they’ve learned in her classroom and lab to local high schools to heighten other students’ scientific awareness, Ledbetter embraces both her pedagogical and research responsibilities with zeal and champions bringing science outside the gates of Mount St. James.

“Scientific and technological literacy are essential for citizenship,” says Ledbetter. “People should not be afraid of scientific issues and merely rely on expert authority to interpret scientific evidence that they may not understand.”

Ledbetter was recently recognized for her achievements in both teaching and scientific research with the National Science Foundation (NSF) 2003 Director’s Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars.

Awarding only six professors nationwide with the prize, the NSF recognized scientists in such varied disciplines as biology, psychology and engineering. Other awardees included faculty from Princeton University, the University of Michigan, Tufts University, Hampshire College and the University of Delaware. The NSF award “acknowledges that teaching is a very important contribution to scientific literacy,” says Ledbetter.

Ledbetter, who joined the Holy Cross faculty in 1980, received her Ph.D. from the Laboratory of Genetics at the Rockefeller University in New York and her bachelor of arts degree from Pomona College in California.

Ledbetter had applied for the grant from the NSF, an independent federal agency, but was aware that at that level the competition would be rigorous. This spring, however, she was pleasantly surprised to learn her application had been recommended for the award. In June, Ledbetter and her husband traveled to Washington, D.C., with Holy Cross president, Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., for the awards ceremony at the National Academy of Sciences.

Along with the recognition from the NSF, she received a grant of more than $300,000 to fund scientific projects in her Holy Cross classroom and lab over the next four years.

Part of the grant will support her ongoing work studying cell communication. Ledbetter is studying the communication between cells through gap junctions, structures found in many animal cell membranes, and the regulatory role communication plays in cell growth, development and metabolism. She has published numerous studies on cell communication and has regularly participated in the International Conference on Gap Junctions.

Ledbetter also plans to establish a postdoctoral teaching fellowship in bioinformatics, a hybrid of biology and computer science. The fellow will have a computer science background and teach biology students how to use technology to manipulate large databases to enhance their research.

Recent advances in technology and science such as the Human Genome Project are an enormous resource to Ledbetter and her students, she says, and having an expert in computer science who can easily navigate such technology would be an asset.

“I’m from the older generation which only knows where the computer’s on and off button is,” she jokes. “But using the advances from the Human Genome Project in my research is an exciting opportunity. The possibilities are endless.”

Ledbetter will also mentor the fellow’s formal teaching and prepare him or her for the rigors of teaching in a college setting.

Another project of Ledbetter’s that will benefit from her award is one in which her students go into the Worcester public schools and teach students about scientific issues in the news, such as AIDS or stem cell research.

What began as end-of-the-semester group projects will develop into students visiting classrooms in Worcester high schools and sharing what they have learned.

In her classes Ledbetter assigns groups of students to conduct extensive library research into a timely scientific matter and explain the scientific concepts behind the issue to their classmates. With the help of David Lizotte from the education department and Bill Meinhoffer of the Office of Community-Based Learning, the students with the best presentations will be invited to visit a high school classroom in Worcester and present their findings to the students.

Ledbetter says the projects will teach the undergraduates how to explain difficult scientific concepts by knowing their audience and translating scientific jargon into language lay people will understand. “I think the undergraduates will get as much out of it as the high school students,” she says.

Despite her advances in the lab, Ledbetter is passionate about demystifying science for a non-scientific audience and making science accessible to the public.

To Ledbetter, teaching her students how to communicate scientific theories and concepts is not only crucial for their potential academic careers, but also for a more peaceful world.

“I think we’d all be better off if we could communicate more and believe that we could understand each other,” she says. “Fear of science and stereotypical assumptions about ‘brilliant’ scientists interfere with citizens exercising their appropriate responsibilities in an increasingly technological society.”