To Biology Professor Mary Lou Guerinot, the rewards of scientific research are worth the long hours in the lab and the uncertain results.
In May, Guerinot traveled to a scientific conference in France to report her discovery of a gene in plants that may help fight iron deficiency.
Guerinot, working with a University of Minnesota researcher, identified a gene in the arabidopsis plant that becomes active in times of iron deficiency and enables the plant to take up larger quantities of iron from the soil.
The arabidopsis is a common weed related to the mustard family.
Iron deficiency is the greatest health problem for women and children in underdeveloped nations, Guerinot said. Understanding how the plant takes up iron may lead to the development of more nutritious crops.
Guerinot said the project demonstrated the practical applications of science.
"If we can improve the nutrition of the plant, then we can improve the nutrition of people too," she said.
The discovery of this gene may also help the environment. According to a College press release, the discovery could prove "useful to a new technique called phyto-remediation, in which gene-altered plants are being used to remove toxic metals from contaminated soils."
Guerinot said there were "an interesting mix of people" at the conference, which consisted of workshops and reports. "There were microbiologists as well as ecophy-siologists."
At the conference, Guerinot gave a short presentation about her discovery but said many people knew about her work already, she said.
Though Guerinot was fortunate enough to travel to Paris, she was not fortunate enough to fit in any sight-seeing.
After spending a week in Arc et Senans, near Lyons, with about 100 other scientists, she needed to head back to the College's biology department, she said from her office, which adjoins a laboratory stocked with neatly lined bottles and lab notebooks.
Along with the rigors of teaching, running labs and 12-hour days of research, she travels to various meetings, seminars and conferences around the world and at other universities. She also serves on a panel for the National Science Foundation, the organization which funded her project.
Between teaching microbiology, biochemistry and molecular genetics, the first woman to chair a science department at the College also frequently works 12-hour or longer days in the science building, student researcher Beth Marston '97 wrote in an e-mail message.
She said she generally spends equal time teaching and researching, although in the Fall term there is a heavy commitment for teaching.
Guerinot said she likes teaching microbiology best because it covers topics from the basics of biology to the diversity of diseases to how we make food.
Guerinot has been at Dartmouth since 1985. She came here because she liked the idea of a small town. "Dartmouth is a great school too," she added.
"Dartmouth students are very smart," she said. "They keep me on my toes."
Originally trained as a marine biologist, Guerinot has done a lot of scuba diving, she said. She vacations each year in St. Bart's and likes to read in her free time.
Guerinot grew up in Rochester, NY and attended Cornell University.
She got her Ph.D. at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she met her husband, Rob McClung. McClung teaches molecular genetics and plant biology at Dartmouth.
They worked together previously in Maryland and Michigan State before coming to Dartmouth. They currently live in Etna.
