CSB Nobel Laureates Dispense Advice for Future Generations of Researchers

Alan Heeger,
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2000Credit: George Foulsham

(Santa Barbara, California) –– In an instant Monday night, a hush came over Hatlen Theater as UC Santa Barbara's Vice Chancellor for Research, Mike Witherell, joked about how quickly the packed auditorium quieted. Then, moderator Meredith Murr, UCSB's director of research development, introduced three of UCSB's Nobel laureates –– Alan Heeger, Finn Kydland, and Walter Kohn –– and summarized the works that won each of them the Nobel prize.
Heeger, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role in the revolutionary discovery that plastics can have the properties of metals and semiconductors, a finding that created an important new field of research.

Kydland joined the faculty in July 2004, when he was appointed to the Henley Chair in Economics. That same year he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for research on business cycles and macroeconomic policy, specifically the driving forces behind business cycles and the time inconsistency of economic policy.

Finn Kydland,
Nobel Prize in Economics, 2004Credit: George Foulsham

A condensed matter theorist, Kohn, emeritus professor of physics and a research professor, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1998 for his leading role in the development of density functional theory, which has revolutionized scientists' approach to the electronic structure of atoms, molecules, and solid materials in physics, chemistry, and materials science.

In a free, public event of the ongoing GRITtalk series, the three discussed how they came to the work that won them the Nobel prize, and when they realized it was groundbreaking in nature. They talked about their lives pre- and post-Nobel. They talked about risk, rejection and self-doubt. Yes, even Nobel laureates are human.

"It was very interesting to hear how these great people became who they are," said Aidan Herderschee, a participant in UCSB's Research Mentorship Program (RMP), a six-week summer research program for highly motivated high school students.

For an event with serious brainpower in evidence, levity was not absent. The audience laughed throughout the evening at amusing stories about the official Nobel call and other important life moments that the laureates shared.
According to Heeger, risk is part of the thrill of a life in science. "After the Nobel Prize, there was a period of time when I was hesitant to take a risk," he recalled. "It's okay to fall on your face when no one is looking. But I got over it. One should never lose one's nerve."

Walter Kohn,
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1998Credit: George Foulsham

But the most captivating part of the evening took the form of advice: that which the laureates received and that which they dispensed to the audience. "It's important to start with considerable exploration," said Kohn. "You'll stumble upon something you really love to do," Kydland said.

"It was quite interesting and I appreciate the advice for young people," said Ulrike Wabel, who was visiting Santa Barbara from Germany and saw the GRITtalk in a local paper's calendar section. "I will pass on their advice to my grandson," added fellow traveler Jan Schuleter.

The GRITtalk series is jointly sponsored by the RMP and the Summer Cultural and Enrichment Program. GRIT stands for groundbreaking research/innovative technology. The talks offer an opportunity to spend an evening with notable UCSB scholars, in this case three Nobel laureates.

"It was an honor to have them come and talk to us," said Andrew Milich, an RMP student from New York City. "I've read about the Nobels, but I never thought I'd get to see a Nobel laureate when I was so young."

The panel discussion was followed by a question-and-answer period. When Vijaya Dasari, an RMP student from Memphis, Tennessee, asked the Nobel laureates what the most groundbreaking discovery in their field was, Kohn had a succinct reply. "My field of research can be broad or narrow, but I can sum it up in two words: quantum theory," he said.

"It was really inspiring to hear the Nobel laureates," said Christabel Chan, a Canadian RMP student from Toronto, Ontario. "This is the kind of unique opportunity you don't get in any other summer program and that is why I came here."

Rare Corpse Flower (Titan Arum) to Bloom at UCSB Biology Greenhouse

Chanel the Titan Arum on Thursday July 18,
Photo: Julie Cohen

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Sometime in the next week or so the UC Santa Barbara greenhouse will start smelling like a rotting corpse. But the campus police needn’t worry; it’s only the huge perennial herb Amorphophallus titanum, a member of the Araceae family and thus related to jack-in-the-pulpit and skunk cabbage.

Commonly known as the corpse flower and dubbed the Titan Arum by Sir David Attenborough during the filming of the Private Life of Plants series, this botanic giant can grow up to 10 feet tall and has the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. An inflorescence is a floral structure composed of many smaller individual flowers.

The plant’s rotting corpse smell becomes apparent as the spathe (the outer frilly skirt, actually a modified leaf) unfurls. The nauseating scent, which comes from two sulfur- producing chemicals similar to that responsible for rotten eggs, is designed to attract such pollinators as flesh flies and carrion beetles.

In addition to the foul odor, the spadix (the tall center part of the bloom) heats up to about human body temperature in order to spread the smell even farther and attract pollinators when the female flowers are most receptive in the first 12 hours of bloom. The male flowers only open on the second day, which helps to prevent self-pollination. After two days the inflorescence begins to collapse. Titans can take seven to 10 years to bloom.

Native to the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, it is uncommon both in the wild and in cultivation and blooms only rarely. In fact, Titan Arums are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

There have only been about 175 blooms in cultivated species worldwide, the first of which occurred in 1889 in England’s Kew Gardens. The same plant did not flower again until 1926. The first documented flowering in the U.S. was at the New York Botanical Gardens in 1937.

UCSB’s corpse flower, dubbed Chanel, arrived on campus about five years ago. Chanel is the progeny of Tiny, which last bloomed at UCSB in 2002. Tiny was pollinated by a specimen at the Huntington Botanical Gardens, which makes Tiny Chanel’s mother.

Growing Titan Arums from seed requires patience. Once the seed germinates and grows roots, a corm — much like a potato’s tuber — forms and lies dormant for three to nine months before leafing out. After 12 to 18 months, the leaf dies back (just like tulips in summer) and the plant goes dormant for another three to six months. When a new bud appears, the emerging leaf is larger than the previous leaf and the corm below ground continues to grow.

This cycle repeats until the corm reaches the minimum size for flowering, about 35 pounds. On rare occasions, instead of a leaf emerging from the dormant corm, a bloom emerges instead. However, the flower cycle does not repeat immediately. The plant lies dormant as a corm and enters the leaf cycle at least once before flowering again.

Chanel is one of four Titan Arums at UCSB. “We have three more which are all in the vegetative stage,” said greenhouse manager Danica Taber. “They go through periods of dormancy after producing a single leaf to gather energy by photosynthesis. The energy accumulates in the corm and is stored there after the leaf dies and it’s time to sprout the next leaf. After several years of cycling through leaf and dormancy, it will, if conditions are right, flower.”

The UCSB greenhouse will be open to the public when Chanel blooms. The plant is currently over four feet in height and growing rapidly. A live feed of a photo taken every five minutes is available at www.eemb.ucsb.edu/ArumBloom/A.titanum.jpg.

Titan Arums tend to be afternoon bloomers. “Only the Titan Arum knows when it’s going to do what it’s going to do,” said Taber.

Chanel represents one of several rare and unusual plant species in the teaching collection at the UCSB biology greenhouses. The greenhouses recently expanded with the addition of six world-class research bays and a state-of-the-art alpine greenhouse, which offer remotely programmable automated irrigation, supplemental lighting, and climate controls. The greenhouses were made possible by a National Science Foundation grant, generous support from the family of Earth Science Emeritus Professor Barry Schuyler, and UCSB’s student-funded The Green Initiative Fund.

When Chanel is about to bloom, viewing hours will be posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ChanelTheTitanArum. Admission is free. Titan Arun signs will direct visitors to Lot 18, where parking costs $2 for two hours. From there, Titan Arum signs will guide visitors from Lot 18 to the greenhouse.

Notes to editors: Danica Taber is available at taber@lifesci.ucsb.edu or at (805) 893-2867 or at (805) 450-7465.