UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #767
BURSTYN, JUDITH

BURSTYN, Judith (1959- )
Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacology
At UW: 1990-

Interviewed: 2006	
Interviewer: Sandy Pfahler
Length: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Family background; Early education; Science school; Undergraduate education at Cornell; Graduate study at UCLA; Postdoctoral research; Women in science; Hiring by UW; Teaching; Tenure; Research; Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment; Field of biological inorganic chemistry; Women in physical sciences; Denise Denton; Physical Sciences Divisional Committee; Committee of Faculty Rights and Responsibilities; Diversity; Campus climate for women; Honors and awards; Women in Science and Engineering Residential Learning Community; Family and leisure.

Interview Session (May 19, 2006): Tapes 1-2

00:00:21	Judith Burstyn was born in Boston in 1959.  Her father was then a PhD student in the history of science at Harvard and her mother was a teaching assistant.  Her mother later pursued a degree from the University of London.

00:02:39	After her father completed his PhD, the family moved to England.

00:03:23	The family moved to Pittsburgh when she was seven years old.  She describes her early education there.

00:04:48	During the summers she attended science school in Woods Hole.

00:07:05	She began public high school in Pittsburgh before her family moved to New Jersey.  Her mother had a job at Rutgers.

00:09:22	She describes an influential high school chemistry teacher.  Her main interests were in chemistry and neurobiology.

00:10:39	A scientist from Woods Hole advised JB to major in chemistry.

00:11:48	She talks about applying to colleges.  She chose to attend Cornell.

00:14:01	She describes her undergraduate education at Cornell.

00:18:25	In the summer after her first year, she worked in a chemistry lab at Rutgers with Professor Joan Valentine.  Valentine encouraged her to work with Professor Larry Kay at Cornell.

00:21:15	She describes her senior-year course work in chemical ecology, hemoglobin, molecular biology, and Russian literature.

00:26:05	JB applied to Northwestern, MIT, and UCLA for graduate study in chemistry.  Joan Valentine was moving to UCLA and encouraged her to apply there.  She chose UCLA and worked with Valentine.

00:30:33	She met her husband at UCLA.

00:31:30	End of Tape 1, Side 1.

00:32:10	Judith Burstyn describes her graduate study in chemistry at UCLA.  She worked as a teaching assistant.

00:32:57	She describes some of her professors.

00:34:22	She talks about women in the chemistry PhD program.  Joan Valentine was the only woman on the chemistry faculty.

00:39:02	JB married her husband, Steve, during graduate school.  She completed her PhD before him and she did a postdoc at UCLA, when she studied the metabolism of illicit drugs.

00:45:51	JB wrote a grant to do research as a postdoc with Stephen Lippard at MIT in 1987.  Research on nucleic acid.

00:48:30	She was involved with the women’s postdoctoral group at MIT and became a representative to the Women’s Advisory Group.  JB describes learning about issues regarding women in science.

00:54:01	She wrote proposals to study nitric oxide.

00:56:35	Robert McMahon encouraged her to apply for a job in biochemistry at UW-Madison.  She accepted the job at UW.

01:00:26	She describes her job interview.

01:02:27	She thinks that the organic job was converted into an inorganic chemistry job for her because the university was keen to hire women in science.

01:03:01	End of Tape 1, Side 2.

01:03:04	Judith Burstyn continues to discuss her hiring by the University of Wisconsin–Madison.  She and her husband considered Iowa State and UW.

01:06:52	She began work at UW in January 1990 as an assistant professor.  She describes moving to Madison with her husband and new baby and meeting faculty and graduate students.

01:08:52	Negotiating for start-up money.

01:10:07	Tenure.  JB describes her early graduate students.

01:12:01	Teaching introductory chemistry: “a frightening experience.”

01:15:30	Her husband was doing a postdoc in the medical school.  He decided to go to medical school.

01:16:49	She describes her tenure process.

01:18:01	JB describes in detail her most significant contributions to the field, including her research on proteins.

01:21:11	NIH funds most of her research.

01:21:50	She participated in the Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment project in order to improve her teaching.

01:25:03	JB discusses significant developments in the field of biological inorganic chemistry.

01:30:15	She talks about her committee service on campus.  JB served as a facilitator in the Leadership Institute.

01:31:26	Denise Denton, former faculty member in engineering and computer science, took a leading role in organizing women in the physical sciences.  JB participated in this group, which is now coordinated through the women faculty mentoring program.  This group nominated JB to serve on the Physical Sciences Divisional Committee.

01:34:06	End of Tape 2, Side 1.

01:34:09	Judith Burstyn describes her service on the Physical Sciences Divisional Committee.  JB wrote a set of standing procedures for the committee and she ultimately became chair of the committee.

01:35:08	She currently chairs the Committee of Faculty Rights and Responsibilities.

01:35:47	Involvement in program to support minority graduate students in the College of Letters & Science. She is also responsible for the diversity component of the NSF-funded Center for the Integration of Teaching, Research and Learning.

01:38:22	JB was appalled at the climate for women on the UW campus when she arrived in 1990.  She thinks the situation has improved since then.

01:39:58	She received an award for mentoring women faculty.  She ran the Women in Science and Engineering Residential Learning Community with Wendy Crone.  JB lists some of her other honors and awards.

01:42:30	She talks about her family and her leisure activities.

01:48:00	She just finished teaching a new inorganic chemistry class.

01:48:50	JB reflects on her career at UW.

01:49:53	End of Tape 2, Side 2.  End of interview.

END