News
ISPE Faculty Spotlight
Gettin' their groove on: the alter egos of ISPE faculty
June 28, 2006
By Stephanie Doster
Steve Yool and his accordion
By day, J.E. “Ed” de Steiguer is a University of Arizona natural resources professor, steeped in research on public lands policy.
But for at least 30 minutes every night, his toe-tapping rocker alter-ego takes over when he picks up his tan and cream-colored Danelectro guitar—one of eight guitars in his collection—and starts to play.
De Steiguer is one of a number of Institute for the Study of Planet Earth (ISPE) faculty who dive into other hobbies and delve into other interests—music, art, and the finer points of plaster, to name a few—when they shed their day jobs.
“It’s therapeutic, if you enjoy that sort of stuff,” de Steiguer said as he plucked a few chords of Santana’s “Black Magic Woman”. “You lose yourself in it.”
Some ISPE researchers said music, in particular, compliments their pursuit of science and statistics.
“Music is sounds. Sounds are physics. There is a point where physics becomes art,” said de Steiguer, whose son, Philip, plays keyboards for the award-winning country music singer Jo Dee Messina and toured for nearly two months with George Strait.
Andrew Comrie, professor of geography and regional development and atmospheric sciences, sings with the UA Faculty/Staff Choir. Paul Sheppard, an assistant professor in the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, entertains audiences with jazz, swing, pop, and traditional barbershop ballads in the quartet, the Sonoran Sound. Hydrology and Water Resources Professor Hoshin Gupta is on guitar, playing jazz, Latin, folk, and rock tunes, but would like to blend Latin and Indian sounds. Mike Crimmins, a climate science extension specialist with the UA Cooperative Extension, plays the saxophone and is bent on conquering the guitar. And Steve Yool, an associate professor of Geography and Regional Development, “rode the wave of the Golden Age of the Accordion in the ‘50s and ‘60s,” having first picked up the instrument as a 7-year-old, he said. The list of faculty is by no means complete.
“Playing allows you to completely refocus your energy. It’s extremely creative. You get immediate gratification when you play music. In research, you can sometimes wait years to get recognition or an acknowledgement of creative thought,” said Yool, a member of the Accordion Club of Tucson. “As a faculty member at the university, I don’t get applause after a lecture, but you go out and play music and there is a wonderful exchange.”
Gupta, whose electric band, Water on the Rocks, or WOTR (appropriately pronounced “water”), said his attitude toward music and the band is in sync with the philosophy he imparts to his hydrology students about their research.
“Don’t be afraid to try something new and to draw from other traditions,” he said.
But extracurricular interests aren’t limited to music and song. Take Mary Kay O’Rourke, an associate professor of public health, who has a passion for renovating, repairing, and generally fussing over the historic buildings on her Armory Park property.
As a graduate student interested in dendrochronology, O’Rourke said she “fell in love with wood” at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. She has since refinished the wood trim and floors of three buildings and repaired the plaster in her roughly century-old house and out-buildings using a special formula that lets the underlying adobe breathe.
Perhaps her words say it best: “I am a demon with a sander and I am obsessed with urethane. My life has not been the same since I found disposable vinyl gloves. I wield chain-saws with alacrity. Ladders and I have been known to interact in ways less than positive.”
Marbles and Pebbles by Alex McCord
And Alex McCord, a technical specialist with the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) project, is a sketcher and painter who also spins a mean potter’s wheel. A geologist, McCord frequently captures landscapes with watercolors, winning cash awards at the Mesa Community College student shows in 2004 and 2005. In 1997, McCord took top honors in the painting category at the UA’s Staff Art Exhibition.
In all, the multi-faceted talents of researchers affiliated with ISPE echo the breadth and diversity of their work on campus, said Barbara Morehouse, acting director of ISPE who sings with the Tucson Masterworks Chorale.
“So many scientists at the UA have a 'hidden' talent or a passionate interest,” she said.