{"id":21220,"date":"2021-08-18T00:52:40","date_gmt":"2021-08-17T19:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=21220"},"modified":"2021-08-18T00:56:03","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T19:11:03","slug":"a-curtain-call-for-impresario-tireless-advocate-for-science-literacy-shakhashiri-retires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/a-curtain-call-for-impresario-tireless-advocate-for-science-literacy-shakhashiri-retires\/","title":{"rendered":"A curtain call for impresario, tireless advocate for science literacy \u2014 Shakhashiri retires"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Terry Devitt<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MADISON \u2013 Bassam Shakhashiri, the kinetic and tireless science educator and 81-year-old University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison chemistry professor who for more than 50 years charmed and amazed audiences with the wonders of science, has retired. His steadfast advocacy for science literacy was a clarion call to scientists and politicians alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Best known for his colorful (and sometimes loud) public demonstrations of chemical phenomena, Shakhashiri played to packed houses from Washington to Silicon Valley. His annual program, \u201cOnce Upon a Christmas Cheery in the Lab of Shakhashiri,\u201d was a staple in Madison, on public television, and \u2014 while serving in the late 1980s as an assistant director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) \u2014 in the halls of Congress and venues such as the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and the National Academy of Sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal was always the same: to convey to audiences \u2014 by power of demonstration \u2014 the value of science to society and the absolute necessity of broad science literacy for understanding everything from human health to climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScience is a way of looking at the world,\u201d says Shakhashiri. \u201cScience literacy is the appreciation of science without a deep understanding of chemistry, physics, biology or any other science. It\u2019s an attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shakhashiri emigrated from Lebanon to the United States at the age of 17 with his parents and two sisters. He joined the UW\u00ac\u2013Madison chemistry faculty in 1970, arriving on campus one week after the Sterling Hall bombing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Channeling a desire to reinvigorate the college learning experience, he became the founding director of the UW System Undergraduate Teaching Improvement Council in 1977. In 1983, he founded the UW\u2013Madison Institute for Chemical Education, a nationally recognized center that provides support, tools and inspiration for science educators. ICE has been a leader in helping revitalize science curricula in the nation\u2019s schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to help put Wisconsin on the map in science education,\u201d Shakhashiri recalled in an interview in an aerie of an office overlooking Lake Mendota. \u201cWisconsin was very attractive to me. I learned the meaning of the Wisconsin Idea. I feel it in my bones. I cherish the freedom of scholarly work and public service.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1984, Shakhashiri accepted an appointment to serve as NSF assistant director for science and engineering education. He immediately set out to rebuild a program whose budgets were, for all practical purposes, zeroed out by the Reagan administration, leaving only $16 million in 1981 for graduate fellowships that had already been awarded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the support of scientists, an energetic flair, and a knack for getting the ear and sympathy of Congressional leaders, budgets for science education at NSF surged to the $230 million mark by 1990. However, around that time, Shakhashiri was forced from the agency, in large measure because his success at rekindling Congressional support for science education was viewed by some as a detraction from the agency\u2019s research mission, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some quarters, 20 percent of the NSF budget pie was too much: \u201cI wanted to make the pie bigger,\u201d recalls Shakhashiri. \u201cI always advocated for the agency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, NSF\u2019s science education budgets stand at more than $900 million. In 2007, the National Science Board, which oversees NSF, conferred on Shakhashiri its Public Service Award, an act viewed by some as vindication for the Wisconsin chemistry professor and his uncompromising advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning to Madison, Shakhashiri established himself as a preeminent scholar in science education, over time giving more than 1,500 invited presentations in the United States and around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With collaborators, Shakhashiri authored a five-volume series of chemistry demonstration handbooks, published by UW Press and described as \u201cclassics, used year in and year out\u201d by teachers and others to illustrate meaningful lessons in science. The books remain \u201cthe best such tools for teachers in any language ever written,\u201d extolls Cornell chemistry professor and Nobel Laureate Roald Hoffmann.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2001, Shakhashiri was named the first William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea, a position he held for 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe is a force of nature who is now a legend, especially for his Christmas lectures,\u201d says Sean B. Carroll, a UW\u2013Madison emeritus professor of genetics who serves as vice president for science education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. \u201cHis cleverness, his boundless enthusiasm, and his showmanship no doubt inspired many future scientists and teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Shakhashiri, \u201cscience is fun.\u201d He wears the mantra like a uniform, invariably sporting it on a big blue button or a cardinal tee shirt. He is known to dispense the buttons \u2014 to everyone from kindergartners to cab drivers \u2014 at so much as a smile. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Shakhashiri and his students could be seen tooling around Wisconsin and beyond in a \u201cScience is Fun\u201d box truck, fostering learning and curiosity in schools, shopping malls and community centers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI saw Bassam\u2019s demonstrations first perhaps 50 years ago, and loved them,\u201d says Hoffmann, a theoretician by trade, whose play about the nature of discovery, \u201cOxygen,\u201d was co-authored with UW alumnus Carl Djerassi and produced in Madison with a memorable assist from Shakhashiri. \u201cThe public demonstrations in the play were not done in any other production,\u201d recalls Hoffmann, clearly touched by the painstaking effort Shakhashiri poured into the play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2002, Shakhashiri established the Wisconsin Initiative for Science Literacy, a program he will continue to lead. As its name implies, WISL \u2018s mission is to promote literacy among the public in science, mathematics and technology \u201cto attract future generations to careers in research, teaching and public service,\u201d and to help UW\u2013Madison graduate students master the communication skills required to effectively share their research with non-experts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2012, Shakhashiri served as president of the American Chemical Society, one of the world\u2019s largest scientific organizations with 155,00 members in 150 countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t pigeonhole Bassam,\u201d says Cora Marrett, the UW\u2013Madison emeritus sociology professor who followed Bassam to leadership roles at NSF, including twice as acting director and a tour leading the agency\u2019s education efforts, the same role Shakhashiri defined more than 30 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among his accomplishments at NSF, she notes, was being an early advocate for inclusion in science, reaching out to underrepresented populations, including women and people of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was an emphasis he retained over the years,\u201d says Marrett. \u201cIt was a deep commitment\u201d to help enable untapped pools of talent to contribute to the enterprise of discovery and, ultimately, society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shakhashiri\u2019s retirement marks the end of some of the Wisconsin chemist\u2019s public engagement activities, but he says his commitment to public service in the interest of broad science education and literacy is unwavering. \u201cI will continue to live the Wisconsin Idea.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bassam Shakhashiri, the kinetic and tireless science educator and 81-year-old University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison chemistry professor who for more than 50 years charmed and amazed audiences with the wonders of science,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/shakhashiri-retires.jpg",675,450,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/shakhashiri-retires-200x200.jpg",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/shakhashiri-retires-600x400.jpg",600,400,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/shakhashiri-retires.jpg",675,450,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/shakhashiri-retires.jpg",675,450,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/shakhashiri-retires.jpg",675,450,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/shakhashiri-retires.jpg",675,450,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/shakhashiri-retires.jpg",675,450,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/shakhashiri-retires.jpg",675,450,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/shakhashiri-retires.jpg",600,400,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/shakhashiri-retires.jpg",600,400,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/shakhashiri-retires.jpg",675,450,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/shakhashiri-retires-550x360.jpg",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/shakhashiri-retires-95x65.jpg",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/shakhashiri-retires.jpg",640,427,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/shakhashiri-retires.jpg",96,64,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/shakhashiri-retires.jpg",150,100,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Terry Devitt"]},"category_info":"Culture<\/a> News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}