VT College of Science Magazine Annual 2014 | Page 14

Fighting Cancer
at the
Speed of Light
E

ven though she’ll tell people she’s from Blacksburg, it’s not entirely true. Karen Brewer, professor of inorganic chemistry, was a military family
member born in Germany who didn’t really settle
down until arriving at Virginia Tech in 1992. Karen’s
father was in the Army and her mother is a native of
Germany from Bavaria.
“I have so much energy it’s ridiculous. I need structure,” said the coowner (with Shamindri Arachchige, instructor of chemistry) of the
2014 Alumni Award for Outreach Excellence. Education has provided
that structure since she was young. Her father, who was involved
in a lot of mentoring, instilled in Brewer the love of learning and
teaching, which she continues to develop today.
“My brother and I are first-generation college students,” she said.
“He’s a surgeon and I started out my college career on an ROTC scholarship before deciding that was probably not what I wanted to do.
The exposure to education and science was interesting and prompted
my change in career path, enrolling in the education program at
Wofford College. My father always told me I could do anything, and
encouraged and supported me in what I wanted to do. I guess he is a
little atypical for a military man of his generation, but he always told
me to shoot for the stars and provided me with that can-do attitude.”
Brewer’s interest in chemistry took hold while an undergraduate at
Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., which had transitioned to a
coed institution only three years before she arrived. “The first women at Wofford were seniors when I arrived, so it was the first year the
college was fully coed.”
“Between Wofford and growing up around a military environment,
it made me very comfortable working with men and forming close
friendships with men or women. I look at what each person can contribute and that’s helped me in the long term.”
Brewer enrolled in a K-12 education program at Wofford. “I was
involved in teacher training at the middle school level, which was

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interesting and inspiring. In many ways, this experience led to my
passion about outreach to the K-12 system in my role as a professor
at Virginia Tech.”
After graduating with a doctorate from Clemson, she went on to a
post-doc at Berkeley and then to her first position as a professor at
Washington State University. “My post-doc with Professor Melvin
Calvin provided mentorship from an amazing man and exposure to
many excellent scientists and educators.” Brewer’s approach to her
work at Virginia Tech has been to blend both education and research
into something more useful and meaningful.
“I think university-level research has many mechanisms of engagement,” she said. “Some people view it as research versus education.
I’m a really strong advocate of integrated research and education,
carefully focused with an understanding [that] each has different
demands. When you have funded research, there are clear objectives
you have to accomplish. As a professor and educator, it gives me the
opportunity to mentor in a way you wouldn’t be able to otherwise.
The difference between research here and in an industrial setting –
you can put the time into mentoring and building on the education.”
Mentorship is a critical part of who Brewer is, something that was
fostered by mentors she had as she progressed in her career. “Professor Peter Ford, in California, was a very strong mentor for me. His
style and way of interacting was something I tried to embrace. The
critical things I learned from good mentors are to treat people as
individuals and be understanding of their unique situations. In some
ways you are a manager, a supervisor, and an educator rolled into
one. You have to understand people as individuals and know how to
motivate them and help them or they can’t be successful. You also
have to have high expectations, let the students know you are confident they can reach these high goals, and do it in a positive way.
This is a key lesson I learned from my father and mother, Henry and
Gerda Jenks.”
Being a mentor is critical, in Brewer’s view, to successfully recruiting
and retaining women and minorities in the sciences. “It’s critical as
faculty members that we make it clear to students what an amazing
job we have and the gifts we receive by getting to know so many
young people that will help shape the world of the future.

WOMEN in SCIENCE

COLLEGE OF SCIENCE ANNUAL