January 28, 2005|
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January 28, 2005 |
By Lou Panos Agre indicated as much last spring, when he delivered the commencement address for Towson High School graduates and included this story: On vacation last year after Agre received the Nobel Prize, he and his wife stopped at a gas station near the California desert. They spotted a man Agre described as "an aging hippie," and Agre was surprised to see his wife walk over to the guy and warmly embrace him. Asked for an explanation, she told her husband the man was an old flame, and she once considered marrying him. Lucky that she didn't, Agre told her, because now she was married to a man who had just won the Nobel Prize. "If I had married him," she gently replied, "he would have won the Nobel Prize." The story is apocryphal, of course, but Agre says it always gets a laugh when he tells it, as it did at the Towson High commencement. More importantly, it illustrates Agre's penchant for self-effacement after being acclaimed a world leader in his field. When the laughter triggered by his make-believe vacation tale died down, he offered another quote, this one a Biblical reminder from Luke and directed especially to high achievers in the class: To him whom much is given, from him much will be required. Apparently much was given to Agre and his five siblings, including three brothers. Their father was a chemistry teacher in Minnesota, and two of his brothers also became physicians. But Agre expressed special pride in the other brother, who he said was not particularly brilliant in school and became a custodian. This one, Agre said, is especially "outgoing and generous and is the glue that holds the family together." As if presenting this as an encouragement to young middle-of-the-roaders, the internationally recognized scientist said they should not be disappointed by lack of early success. That doesn't mean achievement won't come later, he said. Agre then mentioned the example of a student who once failed English and never graduated from college. Fellow named John Steinbeck, who won the 1962 Nobel Prize in literature. His many novels included such classics as "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Of Mice and Men." Agre has spent much of his time peering through a microscope, leading to his prize-winning discovery of aquaporins, proteins involved in the passage of water into and out of cells. The finding could help further research into kidney disease, stroke and lung problems in premature babies. Such work is a blessing to humankind. Being able to step back from the microscope and take a larger view of life is an even greater blessing. The world harbors too many profiteering plunderers of the planet, too many pompous politicians and too few selfless statesmen. It also needs a few more Peter Agres. © 2004 MyWebPal.com. All rights reserved.
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