A New and Improved Chemistry Dept.

Three years after the suicide of a graduate student rocked the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, a new department center, intended to serve as a place for chemistry students and faculty to gather and relax, opened last month in Mallinckrodt, the main chemistry building.

The latest in the department’s efforts to improve the quality of student life, the center has opened to rave reviews.

“To the best of my knowledge...[it is] the best graduate center in the country,” says Timothy J. Dransfield, a seventh-year graduate student and a former co-chair of the department’s quality of life committee.

Over the last few years, the department’s efforts to reach out to its members, students say, have met with a great deal of success.

“My quality of life has been pretty good, more often than not,” says Tiffany K.M. Gierasch, current co-chair of the quality of life committee. “My sense is that most people are happy.”

A Checkered Past

Chemistry students say their life can be difficult and lonely.

“Grad school can be very isolating, especially in the sciences,” Dransfield says.

Graduate students work long hours in a research group headed by a professor for most of their career in the doctoral program. Most students work straight through the summer without taking significant vacations.

Students say they often toil away for many months on a single experiment and are under pressure to produce results.

This pressure reached critical proportions after Jason D. Altom, a fifth-year graduate student, committed suicide by swallowing a lethal dose of potassium cyanide in August 1998.

In his suicide note, Altom blasted the department for not caring enough about its students.

“Professors here have too much power over the lives of their grad students,” he wrote.

His death sparked national attention when the New York Times Magazine ran an article entitled, “Lethal Chemistry at Harvard.”

In the wake of Altom’s death, and the resulting negative media attention, the department changed the thesis advising system to involve three professors instead of one.

To encourage the mental health of members of the department, the department also hired a private psychiatrist available to all members of the department.

New And Improved

Walking into the new chemistry department center, graduate students can find an array of ways to enjoy a break from their busy schedule.

“It’s great—take a look at it,” says first-year graduate student Arturo J. Vegas.

Students can hold office hours for courses they are TFing, play pool and enjoy a mini-cafe and a piano.

The gathering spot is called the department center because it is for all members of the department, including post-doctoral students, not just graduate students. Many research groups hold “open houses” here to introduce their research to fellow students.

“[The center is] definitely a place to come to chill and relax,” Vegas says while racking up the pool balls.

The departmental improvements are due, in part, to the efforts of chemistry students themselves.

The quality of life committee consists of graduate students representing the different research groups and serves as a way for the department to seek the opinion of students.

Recommendations of the quality of life committee are usually given “pretty generous support,” Gierasch says.

Recently, to highlight alternative job options given the competitive job market, the committee has instituted a career speaker series which brings chemistry Ph.D’s who are pursuing non-traditional paths with their degrees, such as working at a law firm.

There is an “implicit pressure to go into academic pursuits,” said Weld Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry James G. Anderson.

The department has instituted a number of changes to encourage graduate students to have more interaction amongst faculty outside their own research group.

“It’s really positive to see more interaction with faculty,” Gierasch says.

There are also monthly buffets for all members of the department.

This year, the department is also sponsoring rotations for first-year graduate students in many different research groups, a move designed to provide students with more information before committing to one group.

Although Loeb Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology Stuart L. Schreiber has taken over the chair of the department this past year, the improvements will still continue, says Tony R. Shaw, director of the department.

And the improvements seem to be having the desired effect.

“No one doubts it anymore that the faculty does care,” Dransfield said.

—Staff writer Zachary Z Norman can be reached at znorman@fas.harvard.edu.