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A fascination with how things work

By JENNA YOUNGS of the Tribune’s staff

Don Shrubshell photo

Robert Duncan explains a research cell that he developed to study superfluidity as part of a project for NASA. Duncan is vice chancellor for research at the University of Missouri.

Robert Duncan’s fascination with science is obvious - and contagious.

During a meeting to discuss operations at the University of Missouri’s Research Reactor, he used his necktie to identify elements used as radioisotopes for medical tests. The tie was adorned with the periodic table.

"I wear it periodically," he said, repeating a joke that his wife, Annette Sobel, said he tells often.

Don Shrubshell photos

Above, Robert Duncan, vice chancellor for research at the University of Missouri, talks about the high-wheel bicycle he occasionally rides around campus. Duncan is a physicist by trade, and his wife, Annette Sobel, said he is “curious, inquisitive and an excellent teacher. But sometimes he can be a bit of the absent-minded professor.” Below, Laura Murray, administrative assistant at the office of research, talks with Duncan after an afternoon meeting.

In his second-floor office in Jesse Hall, Duncan - who became MU’s vice chancellor for research in August - is surrounded by props that he uses to demonstrate physics principles to visitors.

A high-wheel bicycle stands in a corner by a bookshelf filled with textbooks and some of his past research reports. "Sometimes I ride that around campus," he said of the bicycle, which has a 50-inch front wheel.

Duncan has parlayed his lifelong interest in science into a career that has included serving as founding director of the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico; chief operating officer for the New Mexico Consortium, an organization of New Mexico research universities that promotes scientific connections; and as a consultant for NASA working on the first microgravity fundamental physics mission.

Sobel’s résumé is equally impressive. A physician who specializes in family medicine, Sobel is a retired Air National Guard major general and the former director of the New Mexico Governor’s Office of Homeland Security. She now splits her work week between MU Provost Brian Foster’s office and the UM System Office for Research and Economic Development.

Top-level administrators say the university is fortunate to have two such accomplished individuals, and they expect the couple’s connections could lead to increased research-revenue possibilities for MU and the UM System.

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Duncan, 49, said his "fascination with how things work" started at an early age in his hometown of St. Joseph. One time, he flooded his family’s basement after taking apart an air conditioner.

"I kept disassembling all our home appliances," he said. "It was a real problem."

Don Shrubshell photo

Duncan, left, and Sobel finish a meeting with University of Missouri Provost Brian Foster in Jesse Hall.

As a teenager, Duncan fed his interest by working as a television and radio repairman. While at St. Joseph Central High School, Duncan won the Westinghouse Science Talent Search - a first for a student from his school, he said.

Duncan then went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology because, he said, it was considered the best place to pursue his interest in electrical engineering. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in physics in 1982, Duncan went to the West Coast to attend the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received his doctorate in physics in 1988.

Duncan then joined the faculty at the University of New Mexico, where he was a tenure-track professor of physics and astronomy, joint associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and later associate dean for research at the university’s College of Arts and Sciences. He also was a visiting associate professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology.

Sobel said Duncan’s first love has always been teaching, but he is also an accomplished researcher. Duncan has received more than $8 million in project funding from sources including NASA, the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the National Science Foundation.

Sobel, 51, started her military career at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., where she was in the ROTC program. She received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, biochemistry and computer science at Rutgers and was a distinguished military graduate at Princeton University.

After her undergraduate studies, Sobel attended Case Western Reserve University to receive her medical degree. She entered the Army in 1979 as a second lieutenant and was assigned to be the director of undergraduate medical education in the Department of Family Medicine at the Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, N.C. Sobel later transferred to the Air National Guard and began working at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, developing technologies to protect military members and civilians from chemical and biological threats.

From 2003 to 2005, Sobel served as director of the New Mexico Office of Homeland Security under Gov. Bill Richardson. In the position, she focused much of her efforts on border activities and protection against threats to livestock and agricultural communities.

Duncan and Sobel met in 1992 when they were both scheduled to speak at a conference for Sandia. "We both laughed because we both tried to get out of the talks," she said. "I’m glad we didn’t."

They have been married for 16 years.

"Life with Rob is never boring," Sobel said. "We have a mutual respect for each other, and we’re both highly competitive. It’s good he’s not a physician and I’m not a physicist."

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The job of vice chancellor for research is a big-picture job, Foster said, and Duncan fit the profile.

"His ability to see the big picture at the university, fit the pieces together and articulate it all really stood out," said Foster, noting that Duncan was one of four candidates for the job who were invited to campus in the spring for open forums and interviews with faculty, students and administrators.

(Jim Coleman, former MU vice chancellor for research, left the university last year to become vice provost for research at Rice University.)

In his position, Duncan oversees all aspects of research at the university, including grant processes to fund the research. Last year, the university received more than $203 million - a record figure - in external grants, mostly from federal and private agencies outside Missouri.

Duncan said he wants to ensure the university continues to have a "culture of innovation." Sobel said Duncan has a vast network of collaborators and contacts that could benefit the university’s development and research missions.

"Rob has collaborators at Caltech, at Yale, in Germany," she said. "He’s clearly a hard-core physicist."

Mike Nichols, the UM System vice president for research and economic development, said the university is lucky to have access to Sobel’s network of contacts, too. She spends 25 percent of her work week in Nichols’ office consulting on development efforts at other UM System campuses.

With the recession straining state and federal budgets, the UM System and MU have promoted higher education as a major economic driver. Recently, UM System President Gary Forsee announced the creation of an Economic Development and Research Council and plans to hold two life science and energy summits later this year. Sobel now is helping plan the summits.

The Economic Development and Research Council - which will include Forsee, chancellors and Duncan, among others - will demonstrate how research programs on campus help stimulate the economy.

Duncan said MU’s economic impact on the state is more than $440 million per year, and he hopes to increase that amount by encouraging research in applied research and by increasing the number of private-public collaborations.

One project Duncan has been excited about since starting at MU is a plan to make the MU Research Reactor the only U.S. producer of molybdenum-99, a radioisotope used in more than 15 million medical tests each year.

Although it would require the construction of a $40 million facility adjacent to the reactor, the project would more than pay for itself once completed, he said. The university is in the process of identifying funding for the new building.

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Duncan and Sobel said they see their positions as service roles.

"I have been exceptionally fortunate to have had highly dedicated professors as educators," Duncan said. "I felt an extreme responsibility to give back to education."

Sobel said Duncan misses some aspects of his previous job as a professor but the administrative role suits him.

"I think it was a natural career path," she said. "He’s been in a more administrative role the past six years. I think he misses his research, but he’s missing teaching his students more. He was always so engaged there. But he needs to do this job and do it well."

Sobel said her positions with the provost’s office and at the UM System provide her with a chance to "get creative" and provide ideas for collaborative research projects.

"I’m really impressed by the university," she said. "It’s a world-class research institution, and it seems there’s a real dedication to a strong work ethic. We’re doing the right thing, getting engaged in new innovations. I can encourage people to meet and talk and expand into interdisciplinary areas."

In his free time, Duncan works on physics problems for enjoyment.

"I did a physics calculation last night when I couldn’t sleep," he said. "It calms me down. It’s fun stuff. I ask the question of: ‘How do things work?’ and then figure it out on that basis. That’s also a key to good administration."

Source: http://www.columbiatribune.com/2009/Jan/20090124Busi008.asp

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