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Enlightenment and the
Responsibilities of the
Enlightened
Bassam Z. Shakhashiri
The George Washington University
Teaching & Learning Collaborative
Washington, D.C.
March 2, 2012

“Science is a hexagonal mountain with six faces…
The three beautiful faces of science are science as subversion of authority, science as an art form, and science as an international club…
Science is presented to our young people as a rigid and authoritarian discipline, tied to mercenary and utilitarian ends, and tainted by its association with weapons of mass murder. The way to attract young people into science is to show them all six faces and give them freedom to explore the beautiful and ugly as they please.”
Freeman Dyson
From Eros to Gaia, 1992
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“A failure of science to produce benefits for the poor in recent decades is due to two factors working in combination: the pure scientists have become more detached from the mundane needs of humanity, and the applied scientists have become more attached to immediate profitability.”
Freeman Dyson
Imagined Worlds, 1997
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Grand Challenges to Society and to Scientists
Help sustain Earth and its people in the face of:
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Population growth
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Finite resources
• Malnutrition
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Spreading disease
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Deadly violence
• War
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Climate change
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Denial of basic human rights, especially the right to benefit from scientific and technological progress.
SCIENCE AND SOCIETY HAVE WHAT IS ESSENTIALLY A SOCIAL CONTRACT
THAT ENABLES GREAT INTELLECTUAL ACHIEVEMENTS BUT COMES WITH
MUTUAL EXPECTATIONS OF BENEFITING THE HUMAN CONDITION AND
PROTECTING OUR PLANET.
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Globalization
Sustainable Development
Pollution
Climate Change
Evolution
Genetically Modified Organisms
Spread and Control of Disease
Drugs and Alcoholism
Tobacco
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Workforce
Science Education Standards
Teachers
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Appreciation of Science
Appreciation of Technology
Energy
Human Rights
Quality of Life
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Chemists, Artists, Humanists,
All Professionals, The General Public,
Youth and Adults Alike
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“Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.”
>> Abraham Lincoln
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• Competent in their disciplines
• Committed to their disciplines and to the profession of teaching
• Comfortable with the methods and techniques they use
• Compassionate with students (and colleagues)
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“Teachers owe it to themselves to teach what they love. In so doing, they nourish their students. They owe it to themselves to show their students who they are. To do this, they need to know what they love, and who they are – not a simple task, but surely the anchor without which they’ll drift.”
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“Teachers owe it to themselves to teach what they love. In so doing, they nourish their students. They owe it to themselves to show their students who they are. To do this, they need to know what they love, and who they are – not a simple task, but surely the anchor without which they’ll drift.”
>> Diane Chapman Walsh
President of Wellesley College
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“Great teachers are the ones who weave webs of life-affirming connection for their students. Proficiency with technology, tightly framed learning outcomes, even multicultural awareness are secondary to the passion teachers bring to their subject matter, the compassion, awe, and joy they embody and communicate. Great teaching comes from spirit, not from technique.”
>> Diane Chapman Walsh
President of Wellesley College
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“To me, teaching is the ultimate performing art, and all performing arts are interactive. You always have to connect with the people… You don’t just present, you have to connect. And
I find it difficult [online]… It’s one thing to give students the illusion that the teacher is really there. What’s much harder is to give the teacher the sense that the students are really there.”
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>> Jaron Lanier,
Computer scientist who coined the term “virtual reality”
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Bassam Z. Shakhashiri
2012 ACS President
ACS MISSION: To advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and its people.
ACS VISION: Improving people’s lives through the transforming power of chemistry.
Initiative 1
Initiative 2
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:
Initiative 3 :
Initiative 4 :
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ACS and the Sesquicentennial of the Morrill Land Grant Act
Blue-ribbon panel to examine purposes of graduate education in the chemical sciences
Helping the public understand the science of climate change
ACS High School Teacher Fellowships Program
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• Inform
• Educate
• Engage
• Advocate
• Persuade
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American Chemical Society
Science is Fun and the Joy of Learning
Bassam Z. Shakhashiri
The George Washington University
Teaching & Learning Collaborative
Washington, D.C.
March 2, 2012

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