Dr. Carlos Catalano: Whether it’s science, or art, or music, or whatever it is you choose, just pursue whatever it is you like. And if it is something you really, really want to do and it is in you heart, go do it.! And if it takes longer than something else that’s easier and faster, that’s okay too, because in the long run you’ll benefit from it because you’ll be happier in yourself.
Erika Montero: You are listening to the EarthSky podcast La Clara Voz.
Young people today feel pressured by the decisions they have to make regarding their college studies. However, according to Dr. Carlos Catalano, making a decision is easier than it seems since it is their decision. And in a very congenial way he encourages them to reach their goals.
Jorge Salazar: Dr. Catalano, welcome to Cielo y Tierra.
Dr. Carlos Catalano: Thank you for asking me.
Jorge Salazar: There’s such a buzz of activity here, with the students, with the scientists who are mentoring these students, can you tell me a little bit about?… you know, why do you care about what you do? What has influenced you?
Dr. Carlos Catalano: Wow, oh well do you mean scientifically or SACNAS wise? Scientifically it is just one of those things that you are born with and some people never give up. I can’t tell you how many times I asked “Why?” as a child, you know growing up… and tortilla in the face… “Quiet, I am tired of the question!”… But why, why, why, why, and some people never stop asking. And I don’t think anybody ever really stops asking but some people continue to pursue that as a career, and I was very, very fortunate in being able to do so.
Jorge Salazar: Could you tell me a little about… the tortilla in the face image, I’m having a hard time shaking that. But as you were growing up and you were thinking about going into science, but were not very sure, was there a moment in your life when you decided: Yes, this is what I want to do!, Yes I love asking these questions and I want to keep doing it! Can you tell us a little bit about that process, perhaps about that moment?
Dr. Carlos Catalano: I think there are various points, and each one kind of supports the previous one. The first one I can remember is junior high school, and a junior high school instructor, Mr. Shultie, drove an old Model-T Ford to work every day. But he was very good, in the sense that for the first year I knew him, I thought he was an idiot, ’cause I would ask him questions, and he would say, “You know, I don’t know that answer, I really want to know that answer. In my library, back there, I think there’s a book. Go, go find out and let me know.” And so that inspired that, and it took me awhile to finally figure that this was an educational experience. So the process of learning something on your own started there.
As one goes through, I remember being an undergraduate student in chemistry, hearing a professor say once that we don’t even know how aspirin works. And it was mind boggling, that here is something that everybody takes, everybody knows, it’s everywhere and we still don’t know how it works. And that was many years ago now.
As I progressed through I decided that I needed to do something that I could make a living with, and so I decided to go into pharmacy. While I was looking at pharmacy school, there was another professor, Neil Castagonli, of the University of California, San Francisco, who when I was talking to him said, “Well you know you could do pharmacy and chemistry at the same time here.” And that started that thought process. Well, maybe I can do what I really want to do and in addition have a safe life, right, being able to make a living. And that started that.
And then finally, I think that really congealed my desire to continue the process, in research, research wise, was my research advisor Dr. Paul Ortíz de Montellano, who was at UCSF as well. And we were chatting about, should I go to graduate school or not?, and I wasn’t quite sure. And he was giving me all the logical reasons, all the logical reasons for going to school, “You can do this, you can do that”…. embedded in the middle of all the “You can do this and you can do that,” almost offhandedly was, “You would be the only Latino ever to have both degrees” and bla, bla, bla, bla- and that was it, and that kind of sparked that aspect of it and the idea of coming to SACNAS once I took my first position.
Jorge Salazar: I would like to follow on something you talked about, having to do with this life that we want to live, this better life that we want to live. What effect has your work as a scientist had, on the choices that you make, to live a good life.
Dr. Carlos Catalano: Well, I think, I think the decision is almost the other way around, the decision to live a good life was the decision to pursue this, because I just love it. You know, I have, as many people have, growing up and getting their way through school, done a lot of things from construction to hospital purchasing, to a lot of stuff. And, I think I had done a lot of different things in terms of work in my life, and I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do. This is just fun. And I always kid that this was the only way that I could think of, to graduate and never leave school.
Jorge Salazar: The world we live in today, it’s a complicated world with all this information surrounding us, bombarding us. How do you select information for your personal use? In other words, how do you know what’s true?
Dr. Carlos Catalano: I don’t know that you ever know what’s true, but you know what’s true for you. And that’s the only way you can ever filter it is and you listen, you always listen to what someone has to say and then you decide, “Is it right for me?” or “Is it not right for me?”, “Does it make sense to me?” or “Does it not make sense to me?” and you’re right, there’s a lot of information and it’s all coming from all different directions. And at some point, you just have to make the decision, “Is it right for me or not?”, as a human being, “Does it makes sense?”, “Does it feel right?”, and if it does you accept it and if it doesn’t, you reject it. That doesn’t mean you reject the person giving it to you. But you reject the information, well that’s good for you but for me, but I don’t necessarily believe that is the right thing for me to act upon.
Jorge Salazar: Do you have anything that you’d like to say … any words of encouragement, anything you’d like to tell a young person who loves science, but they are not sure that science is really the right thing to do. Do you have anything to say to someone who’s thinking about science but just isn’t sure if it’s something that they should really do?
Dr. Carlos Catalano: Well, I’d say… like I said- when I was in Pharmacy School I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that graduate school is what I wanted to do, I didn’t know, I hadn’t done research and I think that’s the position a lot of people find themselves in, “Boy that looks attractive but I have never actually done it.” And the only way to know is to do it, just do it. There’s plenty of opportunities now, plenty of avenues to get into research and to do research and see if you do like it. And at each step along the way realize that you have a decision, it is your decision to do this or to not do this. And I think the people who really enjoy it will get into it and say “This is really neat!”
And I think sometimes the fear is “What if I do this and spend 4 years doing this and then all of the sudden I find that I don’t like it?” or “I can do this!” Well for the “I can’t do this!” part, I have always used the analogy, that as kids- this is something you learn as a very young person- if you want to do something, as a child, and you ask your mother can I do this .. and she says “No!” What is the first thing you do?, is go and ask dad. So I always say that, if you are talking to someone about something you want to do and they are saying no you can’t do that, my suggestion is that you are talking to the wrong person. Find someone that will support you and help you, and there are plenty of people out there.
In terms of the time it takes, and this is true of any field, I don’t think that the time means much. And so I say, even if you did do a few years of this and decide, “Well that was fun, I enjoyed it, but it’s not for me,” that’s fine, that’s a big learning experience in and of itself. You tried something, you enjoyed it for a period of time, and you decided ‘it is not for me,’ that’s okay. It’s never lost, education is never lost. And I don’t think any education you ever lose, you apply it in various ways. And then for those that do, do it, and enjoy it, that’s something you’ll never regret doing.
Erika Montero: Our thanks to Dr. Carlos Catalano. I am Erika Montero and this was La Clara Voz podcast, produced by EarthSky Communications.
