Visiting Chemistry Professor Aims to Reach Out to Students

Visiting Professor of Chemistry Addison Ault says that throughout his 35-year career, he has been a teacher, first and foremost.

Ault, who is teaching Chemistry 30: "Organic Chemistry" this semester, is taking a semester sabbatical from Cornell College in Mount Vernon, IA. But Ault is not new to the Harvard chemistry department--he earned his Ph.D. there in 1960 and has taught introductory organic chemistry at the Summer School for the past 11 years.

In his teaching, Ault says that he always tries to put the students, not research, first.

"My research is closely tied to my teaching," he says. "I'm very much more a carrot person than a stick person, finding out ways in which they like to learn rather than threatening them. I felt it's very important for students not to become discouraged."

Ault says that he does not teach organic chemistry from the angle of rote memorization, but rather as a growing experience.

"Sometimes I ask myself, what do I want these people to have 10 years from now?" he says. "I actually don't care so much if they don't remember organic chemistry. But I would like them to know that science is a way of thinking, not a list of things to memorize."

Ault has just finished working on the sixth edition of his introductory organic chemistry textbook, Techniques and Experiments for Organic Chemistry.

"I would say I always knew I wanted to be a teacher rather than a researcher," Ault recalls. "I would say that the major clue I had that teaching was an honorable profession was my father, who was a professor of history at Boston University for 55 years."

Ault says that he felt a great deal of pride talking of his father, who had been one of the country's earliest Rhodes Scholars.

Ault was born in Newton, MA. He attended Newton High School, and later Amherst College. During his adolescence, he says there were only inklings of his future profession in chemistry, however.

"I also liked to take apart things and put them back together, like clocks and bikes," Ault says.

But despite an early interest in the ways things work, Ault says he did not start studying chemistry until his sophomore year in college.

"[It] was appealing from the start and sufficiently deep enough to keep me interested for 40 years," Ault says.

After earning his Ph.D. at Harvard, Ault served two years at Grinnell College as an Assistant Professor. In 1962, he accepted a position at Cornell College where he has remained ever since.

Ault says that he has had a lifelong love of the humanities, pointing to posters of paintings and dozens of novels lined up in his tidy office.

"I especially love autobiographies and memoirs," he says. "I encourage students to read such books. It's like having dozens of favorite grandparents."

In his spare time, Ault says he enjoys cooking and music.

"At Christmas time, I make so many fruitcakes," he said. "Now that my [five] children are all grown up, I send the cakes to my friends."

Ault makes the most of his semester at Harvard.

"I go to all the [Literature and Arts B-51] First Nights classes, and somewhat less regularly Gingrich's class [Science A-17 "The Astronomical Perspectives"]," he says.

Ault says he is also deeply involved in Harvard's musical scene.

"I learned to play the cello when I was 50," he said. "And here I go to lots of recitals and concerts."

Ault tries to integrate music with chemistry, and for the past several years at the Summer School, he organized a music concert with his students as a stress-reliever before finals.

His deep love of people comes through in his teaching.

"There is a connection between my love of autobiographies and my love of teaching," Ault says. "I've gotten to know some extraordinary people through teaching."

Some of Ault's students have later played very important roles for him personally.

"My first grandchild was born 9 days ago," he glowed. "And the attending physician at the birth of my grandchild was a [former] student of mine."