The Stories of Generations

I grew up amidst the infectious enthusiasm scientists exude for Gordon Research Conferences. Often my dad would bring home foreign visitors after the Photosynthesis Gordon Conference, while I sat in the background, rather unnoticed, rapt by the intense and lively discussions.

When I started as an assistant professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara in the mid-1980s, the proximity to the winter Gordon Research Conferences–initially held in Montecito at the Miramar Hotel and later in Ventura and Oxnard–was really convenient. I was working on a new metalloenzyme, vanadium bromoperoxidase from marine algae, and was particularly interested in bioinorganic chemistry. I had already been to the Metals in Biology (MIB) Gordon Conference as a postdoc in 1984 and was familiar with the incredible caliber of the talks and the exceptionally vibrant and animated atmosphere. The breadth and depth of the expertise at this GRC, above all others, have shaped my scientific thinking immensely. In fact, I have applied to every MIB Conference since that first time.

But early on, my research took a turn toward biosynthesis of halogenated marine natural products, so the Marine Natural Products Chemistry (MNP) Conference was the obvious place to turn. From the beginning I was captivated by the attendees’ descriptions of their travel adventures to far-off reaches of the world’s oceans to collect samples, as well as by the new compounds and enzymes that they reported. Through collaborations established with Bill Fenical and John Faulkner and their students at MNP, I went on several research cruises that screened marine organisms for halogenating enzymes. But what really caught my eye in the late 1980s was the emerging work presented at the MNP Conference on culturing marine microorganisms and the kinds of bioactive compounds that were isolated. My research group delved into isolating compounds from marine bacteria, although our focus was (and still is) on compounds that coordinate transition metal ions, such as siderophores. After giving a talk at the MNP Conference in 1998 on the unusual photoactive and amphiphilic marine sidero-phores we were discovering, and trying to convey the importance of inorganic chemistry and bioinorganic chemistry to the group of largely organic chemists, I was at first astounded to be asked to run for the chair position of the GRC and then very humbled when I was actually elected. In the end organizing the MNP Conference was a tremendous experience; I read widely in the marine natural-products literature and talked to everyone I could think of about what was new and exciting before putting together the program.

Two years later when I was speaking at the MIB Conference about the photoreactive and self-assembling amphiphilic siderophores we had discovered, I thought I would try to convey the importance of the extreme and unique transition-metal composition of the world’s oceans on the likely discovery of new bioinorganic chemistry in this environment. (After my talk one person in the front row actually held up a sketch of a baseball flying through the air with the words “Home Run” scrawled beneath, which was a huge relief.) The ensuing discussion–which ranged from molecular aspects of the photoreactive iron(III) siderophores to global implications of the photo-reactive cycles in the ocean–remains crystal clear in my mind and continues to shape the evolution of my ideas. After this talk I was asked to run for MIB Conference chair and was thrilled (if not also humbled again) to be elected. Organizing the 2004 MIB Conference was another ex-tremely satisfying experience in terms of delving into new areas of metals in biology, talking to many friends in the MIB community, and then sitting back during the conference and watching not only the talks unfold but especially the discussions.

Now I am in the throes of organizing yet a third conference, the Environmental Bioinorganic Chemistry (EBIC) Gordon Research Conference for the summer of 2006, with Bradley Tebo as cochair. You might ask, is she a GRC chair junkie? No! I even turned down the initial invitation to run for the chair position, but by the time of the business meeting of the first EBIC Conference, which was held in 2002, I was so inspired that I knew I wanted to help be a part of its success. This new GRC was conceived by Ed Stiefel and François Morel as a spin-off from the success of our National Science Foundation—funded Center for En-vironmental Bioinorganic Chemistry (CEBIC) that is headquartered at Princeton University. But it is also a direct reflection of the sustained success of the MIB Conference and the interdisciplinary nature of this field.

What is it about Gordon Research Conferences that inspires the affection so many of us feel for this conference series? Primarily, the science is outstanding. We take the motto “in the spirit of the Gordon Conference” to heart by exposing our newest results and latest hypotheses (after all no one can quote us) and synthesizing new ideas from the discussions. We also work hard and play hard, to the point of exhaustion, but our students and colleagues clearly “get it” when we arrive back home eager and raring to go. Importantly, Gordon Conferences give younger scientists one of the best environments to meet and interact with top scientists in a field, in a way that rarely happens at larger conferences. In this regard the Graduate Research Seminar GRC that overlaps with the Thursday-evening session of the MIB Conference is a wonderful avenue for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to interact with the MIB crew.

Given the scope of science covered by the GRC series, our scientific community can be surprisingly small and close-knit. I never really considered my dad’s research to be close to my own; yet I have often met people who had attended Gordon Conferences with him, and the stories picked up from where they had left off years ago. Even in my own home now GRC stories captivate the interests of my young daughters, who have helped set up the Sunday-night chair’s receptions for two Gordon Conferences. Once they even added their own poster of some of their lab work to a poster of mine. Now many decades after I first heard of Gordon Conferences, I see that the infectious enthusiasm that scientists at Gordon Conferences show for their research and for each other is rubbing off on yet another generation.