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Biologist Cultivates University of Missouri-Columbia's New Life Sciences Center

Posted on: Wednesday, 14 July 2004, 06:00 CDT

Jul. 10--Given that the University of Missouri-Columbia's new $60 million Life Sciences Center has been 10 years in the making and is perhaps one of the most celebrated projects in MU history, you'd think its first director would be hyping the project at every opportunity.

But that's not Michael Roberts.

Instead, the accomplished scientist who's so skeptical he claims to be agnostic said he's trying to contain everyone's expectations for a building that he says has taken on a mythical proportion.

"I don't mean I expect people to be disappointed," Roberts said. "What I mean is people have very different expectations. They shouldn't expect too much too quickly."

Quickly or not, some people expect a lot from the MU Life Sciences Center. The campus has been promoting the teaching and research facility since 1994. When it officially opens in September with 234,000 square feet of space and laboratories for 36 faculty, the center is intended to be a major stop on the so-called Interstate 70 life science corridor, as well as the flagship for MU's own efforts in the field.

Roberts is the flagship's captain. He began in January as the center's director and has the job of determining the research agenda and identifying which faculty moves into the facility.

The director job is one Roberts has said he accepted with trepidation. He knows it'll be a large task for a man who's never been overconfident.

"I think my wife wonders all the time how I became so successful because she knows she's smarter than I am," Roberts said.

Roberts, 63, was born in Yorkshire, England. His father worked as a wool sorter, someone who would take bales of wool and organize them by quality. His mother worked in a shirt factory. The elder Roberts would take his family on walks, identifying the various plants and trees along the way.

As a teenager, Roberts enrolled as an undergraduate biochemistry major at Oxford University. He soon grew tired of biochemistry and switched his major to botany. It wouldn't be the last time his scientific interests changed.

Roberts married his wife, Susan, in 1961. The first of their two children was born that same year.

He earned his bachelor's degree in 1962. In 1965, he earned a doctoral degree in botany from Oxford.

Also in 1965, the Roberts came to America to take a faculty position in the biology department at the State University of New York in Buffalo. He remained there until 1968, when he returned to England to work for a government-run agency that manufactured isotopes.

He returned to academia in 1970 with a faculty position at the University of Florida. It was there he cultivated a scholarly interest in animals.

Roberts was looking for a subject more interesting than plants when he attended a New Year's Eve party and began talking to a Florida animal science professor. The colleague was trying to determine why a liquid in pig uteruses changed colors as the pig's cycle progressed and thought it was the result of a protein. Roberts began assisting him.

Soon they determined it was the result of a protein that supported development of the pig's embryos. The find led to a better understanding of how sows support embryos.

"It was like everything else," Roberts said of assisting in the swine research. "You volunteer for something, and you don't realize it's going to drastically change your life, because that got me totally into animal physiology."

Roberts came to MU in 1985 as professor of biochemistry and animal sciences. In 1995, he began a three-year term as chairman of the pathobiology department.

While in Columbia, Roberts has maintained his interest in animal pregnancies, embryos and proteins. His research has delved into what makes a pregnancy successful and identified the components that allow an embryo to communicate its needs to the mother.

His work has earned him numerous awards in the field. In 1996, Roberts became a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a prestigious society of academics. That same year, MU put him in its own prestigious class by naming him a curator's professor.

In July 2003, Roberts' name expanded beyond the animal reproduction community. The academy of sciences appointed him to lead an investigation into the quality of care at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

Seven months later, Roberts' panel issued a report saying zookeepers failed in multiple aspects of care and those failures contributed to early death of rare animals, including a zebra and two red pandas.

The zoo's director resigned after the report's release.

Roberts said he was surprised by how much attention the inquiry received and what it meant to Washington residents.

"Zoos, people use them not just as a park," he said. "They get familiar with the animals and get very concerned when they're not cared for properly."

In late 2003, Roberts placed himself in the running for director of the life sciences center. He was one of four finalists but the only one working at MU.

Roberts was able to articulate to the MU administration a "tremendous vision" for the center, said Jim Coleman, the MU vice provost for research. That vision included ways to bring together researchers from different disciplines. Coleman said that's something Roberts has done in his own studies.

"He really understood where research excellence existed on this campus, and one reason for that was because he has been at this campus for so long he knew that better than the other candidates," Coleman said.

The search committee and Roberts also had similar expectations for what the center can accomplish and when.

Biotechnology proponents want discoveries, Roberts says. But he said not every researcher will make revolutionary findings.

The business sector wants spin-off companies that will produce more local and regional jobs, Roberts says. But he replies that not every discovery can be commercialized.

Multiple parties want every researcher at the center to receive outside funding that alleviates the burden from MU's budget and brings more money into the community. Roberts says this is his goal, too, but it will take time to achieve.

"It's a pleasant problem," Roberts said of the varying aspirations for the center. "I don't mind keeping a lot of people happy as long as they don't mind the blunt truth."

Roberts emphasizes that he is optimistic about what the center can accomplish, but he's realistic about the venture. He said the center's top priorities must be producing good research and contributing to undergraduate teaching.

Roberts will have two hands in those goals. Along with an office where he'll perform duties as the building's director, he'll also have a laboratory where he'll continue his work on animal reproduction.

Roberts said his own report on the national zoo, which led to the zoo director's resignation, provides a lesson for what can happen to him if he fails to properly lead the center.

"Directors have to take responsibility for the institution they're controlling," he said, "even if things are getting better."

"I would hope they would fire me if I'm doing a bad job, absolutely," he later added. "I think I would have the common sense to realize I'm doing a bad job and resign first."

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