The Wisdom Gallery 2026

If you could share one piece of wisdom with future generations, what would it be?

This sentiment has been expressed so many times, in so many ways, but I most like the way Meryl Streep puts it: “The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy.”

Please tell us about a favorite book that provided inspiration, guidance, laughter.

The “Spirit of St. Louis” by Charles Lindbergh. I was given this book at Christmas just after I reached my 12th birthday. It was probably the first “adult” book I ever read and I was very happy my parents believed I was old enough to appreciate it. The book itself was thrilling, especially the parts where Lindberg described his emotions and doubts while flying over the ocean. I discovered how a book could transport you to other times and places.

How do you define a life well-lived?

If we can look back upon our lives and find instances where we helped others strive toward a more fulfilling or happier life, that should give us some satisfaction.

What has been your greatest joy or most fulfilling experience?

Being the father of two outstanding daughters. They are compassionate, independent young women who are both remarkable parents themselves. I am very proud of them and their accomplishments.

What role has service or giving back played in your life?

As a scientist, in particular a microbiologist with training in infectious diseases, I looked forward to opportunities to address the public with news about medical research in an attempt to clarify misconceptions and provide new information that affects their lives. This has included meeting with parents in the ’80s during the early years of the AIDS crisis to discuss transmission when many were hesitant to send their children to school; alleviating fears about bioterrorism shortly after the post-9/11 anthrax outbreaks with information that a large-scale attack was unlikely; and describing the remarkable benefits of vaccines, which have saved millions of lives and even eradicated one of the most deadly scourges of humankind – smallpox. I have found great satisfaction in going outside the ivory tower to spread these and similar messages.

If you could share one piece of wisdom with future generations, what would it be?

Take inspiration and comfort from the poet Rainer Maria Rilke: “Be patient…and try to love the questions themselves.”

Please tell us about a favorite book that provided inspiration, guidance, laughter.

A book I have gifted to other grandmothers is Anna Quindlen’s “Nanaville: Adventures in Grandparenting.” I thoroughly enjoyed Quindlen’s lighthearted, poignant, and penetrating observations about “becoming Nana.” I also found meaningful the new understanding of the changed relationships she developed with both her son and daughter-in-law when they became first-time parents. She also chronicles her first grandson’s early months and years, and here’s but one passage about how small moments with Arthur matter. It struck me as quintessentially Quindlen: “One day Arthur discovered his shadow. Boy, that was something. Move leg; shadow moves leg. Wiggle fingers; shadow wiggles fingers. Walk and it walks to one side of you. … Eventually it got tedious, but before the tedium was the surprise recognition that I hadn’t thought about my shadow in decades, that down to its essence it was a pretty wild concept. Nana walks. Nana’s shadow walks. Wow. What a time we had.”

The joyful experiences my husband and I have had with our five grandchildren have been most fulfilling. I fully subscribe to the belief that your grandchildren make you whole in a unique way. It has been particularly inspiring and gratifying to observe our own daughters and sons-in-law becoming experienced parents; their patience and care and good humor are remarkable, especially in these trying times for parents of school-aged children.

In retrospect, if there was one thing you could have done differently, what would that be?

I would have made more efforts to thank more people more often.

What have been among your greatest joys or most fulfilling experiences?

I’ve derived deep fulfillment from a series of faculty and administrative positions in higher education and philanthropy, all in New York City while living in Larchmont. The work was exhilarating, but the pace of life was taxing. I tried to apply the wisdom of Ralph Waldo Emerson who wrote: “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

Even if I did not feel serene, it was part of my job to project serenity – and understanding and empathy and optimism. Often doing so reduced the emotional temperature in the room so we could all refocus our energies on common ground, on solutions.

Over my career, I delivered many “greetings” for various formal occasions, often relating to transitions, such as commencement ceremonies. One theme I kept coming back to is Rilke’s advice to “learn to love the questions.” He was writing to a frustrated young poet, but these words encouraged me to think about my own discipline: that loving the questions was what science is and does, that perfecting the questions asked and acted upon increases the chance that useful answers will emerge. In fact, the philosopher Jacob Bronwoski famously said: “Ask an impertinent question, and you are on the way to a pertinent answer.” But what about “impertinent” – is it to be argumentative? Or is it about arguing well, to thinking outside the box? If I were writing some such address today, I suspect I would be playing with Charles Yu’s new “Atlantic” article titled “Don’t Call It Intelligence” – with his premise “Humans are question machines, while AI is an answer machine.” Plenty to consider here.

What role has service or giving back played in your life?

“Service” is not a one-way street. Every opportunity I have had has given back to me in very meaningful ways. One example is through a new national organization to improve undergraduate science education, initially funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Exxon in 1995. With new labs and a new focus on interdisciplinary science at Barnard, I was eager to participate in this effort, which became Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL).

The funding supported weekend convenings across the country and week-long summer intensives in the Colorado Rockies, bringing together faculty, department chairs, and deans. I was asked to speak and become part of the organizing team in a role called “Village Elder.” I was in my early 50s and admit to some skepticism of being considered an “elder.” I soon learned it was meant as a real honorific, that advice given over meals, at coffee breaks, or via emails after the meetings was part of the grand plan of the organization, creating the informal glue and mutual trust that kept people energized and connected after returning to their own campuses.

With the success of PKAL, plans evolved to have a formal national advisory board on which I served for several years. During that time, PKAL became incorporated as the “science division” of a much larger higher education association. In this way, PKAL’s mission to improve undergraduate science education has endured, and I am grateful to still have friendships across the country which began through our common work as “PKAL elders.”