CAMPUS CURRENT
In the Beginning, There was Bill 35 YEARS AGO, BILL PURVES LAUNCHED THE HMC BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT
When A.J. Shaka ’80 was thinking about applying to become a Rhodes Scholar, he turned to his then teacher and mentor for advice. Bill Purves, who had taught Shaka biology and men- tored him during his senior-year research project, was ready to go to bat for his student. “He was very important in encouraging me to apply for the
Rhodes,” says Shaka, now a professor of chemistry at University of California, Irvine. “He wrote a letter for me that the Rhodes committee brought up during the interview. Whatever he said—I don’t know what it was—it seemed pretty important to the committee.” Although Purves was instrumental in launching the biology
program—becoming its founding member and helping raise funds for the program—he is perhaps best remembered as a man who loved to teach. Purves’ favorite memories of his early years at Harvey Mudd
center around his efforts to capture his students’ imagination and to illustrate concepts by novel stories. “How might I ex- plain the direction in which an RNA molecule grows? Aha! I’ll make up a story about ‘Dimitrios the one-armed line dancer.’” “Some of my students, after taking the course, sort of hung
out with me and talked and talked,” Purves recalls. “They were all bright, these kids. They were Harvey Mudd students.” The deeply-felt responsibility of educating brilliant, young
minds guided Purves throughout his career as a scientist and educator. He was in the right place when plans for a biology department took shape in the late 1980s. A plant physiologist, Purves majored in biology at Caltech
Faculty News, continued from Page 9
America, the award honors college or university professors who have been widely recognized as extraordinarily successful and whose teaching has had infl uence beyond their own institutions. It is the MAA’s highest teaching honor. Past recipients include Art Benjamin (2000) and Matthew DeLong (2012) of Taylor University, who is spending a sabbatical year at HMC.
AMS Fellows The American Mathematical Society named its inaugural class of AMS Fellows, and it included President Maria Klawe, professors Nicholas Pippenger and Art Benjamin and alumni Peter Loeb ’59, George McNulty ’67 and Jerrold Tunnell ’72.
Klawe has made signifi cant contributions in several areas of mathematics and computer science. Pippenger’s interests center in discrete mathematics and probability and extend into commu- nication theory and theoretical computer science. Benjamin is an award-winning teacher, author and mathemagican. Loeb is professor of mathematics at the University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign, McNulty is professor of mathematics at the University of South Carolina and Tunnel is associate professor of mathematics at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. The AMS Fellows program recognizes those who have made outstanding contributions to the mathematics fi eld.
Bill Purves is co-author of the popular textbook Life: The Science of Biology.
before earning a master’s degree and doctorate from Yale University. He taught biology, biochemistry and botany at the University of California, Santa Barbara, for 12 years, eventually becoming chair of the biology department, before taking over a group of biological sciences departments at the University of Connecticut in 1973. In 1977, he moved to HMC. When asked why the head of a group of departments at a big research university would leave for a position as the only biologist at a small engineering school, he replied that he was strongly attracted by the promise of teaching some of the best under- graduates in the world at a very fi ne college. He busied himself researching plant growth hormones, teach-
ing biology and eventually recruiting faculty for a new biology department. Purves’ fi rst new colleague, the neurobiologist
Faculty News
10
Har vey Mudd College SPRING 2013
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