Nobel Prize-winning scientist and University of Utah professor Mario Capecchi shared stories and advice from his career as a molecular biologist with students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Monday.
Capecchi, a joint winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine, spoke as part of the 2012 Rennebohm Lecture Series. The series, made possible by a grant from the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation, began in 1955 and is sponsored by the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy.
Capecchi is best known for his genetic research with stem cells from mice, which he has used to evaluate a vast number of gene functions in humans.
The central theme in Capecchi’s lecture was the importance of colleague collaboration and having freedom to think openly while working in the scientific field. Both themes were drawn from Capecchi’s experiences mentoring and researching at Harvard University and Utah.
According to Capecchi, collaboration leads to more useful discoveries because it promotes an enjoyable community that relies on and helps each other.
“Science is fun [and] if you want to have fun, you need synergy,” Capecchi said. “With synergy, we either all swim or we all drown.”
However, Capecchi said some competition is inevitable and necessary as long as it does not hurt scientific progress.
“I think [competition should] not [come] at the cost of synergy because in the long run synergy always wins out,” Capecchi said. “Two or three minds are always better than one.”
In addition to collaboration, Capecchi said success in science relies on students finding a field that interests them while simultaneously cultivating self-confidence and communication skills.
UW-Madison junior Sarah Kvithyll said Capecchi’s message was important for students to hear because Capecchi knows what students will have to go through to become successful.
“I think it’s important because people like [Capecchi] have been through all of [the work] before and they’ve made it to a point where they are getting invited to lectures like this,” Kvithyll said.
Capecchi will give another lecture, titled “Gene Targeting Into the 21st Century: Mouse Models of Human Disease from Cancer to Neuropsychiatric Disorders”, Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. in room 2002 of Rennebohm Hall.
