It's All in a Long Day's Work

Mike Ostrowski, Master Juggler

"I am always challenging myself and learning. I hope to instill that in my students, by example.

Ask Mike Ostrowski, professor of molecular genetics, if academic life is different now than when he started off, the response is immediate: a quick burst of laughter followed by, "Absolutely! I'm juggling more and more balls all the time, more duties are added all the time and more expectations. I'm much busier, trying to keep multiple projects going, juggling in the lab as I bring new students in, try to recruit the best postdocs and find good technicians." How does he deal with the overload? "The trick is knowing when to put some of that load on the side and what to focus on right now."

Counter to the popular stereotype of full-professor behavior, Ostrowski not only teaches, he teaches every quarter. His challenge is not just getting before the class and going through the book; "it's deciding on what you want them to learn and take away from the class and how you can bring real world research back into the classroom- it's the big advantage we can bring to undergrads."

Ostrowski came to Ohio State in 1995, in large part because he wanted to be involved in teaching and undergraduate education. His former positions, at Duke and the National Cancer Institute had been much more research intensive: no balancing required!

Several of Ostrowski's research projects, as might be expected, revolve around basic cancer research, but he also has an interesting project on the genetics of bone density. Also, Ostrowski serves as co-director of OSU's Comprehensive Cancer Center's Molecular Biology and Cancer Genetics Program. Ostrowski has several substantially-funded research projects using transgenic mice. He recently began an important and interesting collaborative project with molecular genetics colleague Amanda Simcox, who studies signaling mechanisms in fruit flies. Ostrowski realized Simcox's work might have relevance to human breast cancer research. Now they are asking questions about how certain cell signaling pathways might affect the growth of tumors.

But in the midst of all this, Ostrowski never puts his undergraduate students on the back burner, his advocacy of undergraduate research is unswering. "We all need to do more of it-give students the opportunity to learn in the classroom and in the lab-that's what so unique and great about Ohio State; we get to educate the next generation of scientists- teachers, physicians, researchers."

As grad studies chair, Ostrowski is equally committed to recruiting, teaching and training graduate students. Again the time commitment is intense. Most of the real, one-on-one teaching for both grad and undergrad students goes on in the laboratory; classroom lectures are different from teaching!

Ostrowski is concerned that "real" learning happen in the classroom; he's devised what he calls the "A" or "B" question-the grade breaker that separates the "memorizers" from the "thinkers." How you think and use the information you've been given-that is key for Ostrowski, to always be thinking and learning-and looking for the next big questions. He says it's what keeps him going. "I am always challenging myself and learning. I hope toinstill that in my students, by example." When you spend time with Ostrowski and his students in the classroom or in the lab-you can see that he clearly does!