鶹ýɫƬ

Essay

Connecting by committee

Adele Wolfson
April 28, 2022

Everyone hates committee meetings — the kind that we all say could have been an email, the kind that interrupt your flow of writing or working in the lab, the kind where someone repeats something you said five minutes ago and everyone forgets you said it first, the kind that run over and make you late to pick up your kids from daycare.

But committees and committee meetings are what have connected me to the 鶹ýɫƬ and 鶹ýɫƬ Biology over many years and influenced my career as a scientist, educator and administrator.

I clearly remember my first encounter with an ASBMB committee. The phone call asking me to serve on the Committee for Equal Opportunities for Women made me feel validated (and valued) as a new faculty member. I even remember what I wore to that meeting.

We met in the little house behind the old ASBMB headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, and I was in awe of the group around the table — appropriately so, since many distinguished scientists and future presidents of the society were there. It was also the first time I met Barbara Gordon, the ASBMB’s former executive director, and made a connection and friendship that have endured.

Over the years, I have served on many ASBMB committees; some of them developed initiatives that have changed the annual meeting and the society overall — education satellite meetings, women’s networking sessions, undergraduate poster competition, better integration of education and professional development programming into the mainstream, undergraduate program accreditation.

It was the wisdom of the committee, not that of any individual, that allowed good ideas to come to fruition.

In the course of serving on these committees, I have met members whose research overlapped with mine and who gave me guidance about research and publication, those whose suggestions led to major changes in my teaching, and those who became collaborators in education and pedagogy scholarship. I also learned how to be a constructive committee member and, eventually, an effective committee chair.

Like any big organization, the ASBMB has a large, loosely affiliated membership. Members sample what they need or find interesting from the society’s publications, meetings and other offerings. But what I’d call the “back office” of those offerings is a network of committees populated with members and supported by extraordinary staff, and there is always a need for members to find their place and their way to contribute within that network.

Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?

Become a member to receive the print edition monthly and the digital edition weekly.

Learn more
Adele Wolfson

Adele J. Wolfson is a professor emerita in the physical and natural sciences and professor emerita of chemistry at Wellesley College and a 2021 ASBMB fellow.

Related articles

Small grants power outreach
Debra Martin & Michael Wolyniak
Ten years in the making
Kristen Procko & Pamela Mertz
A cellular jigsaw puzzle
Fatahiya Kashif

Get the latest from ASBMB Today

Enter your email address, and we’ll send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.

Latest in Opinions

Opinions highlights or most popular articles

At a career crossroads: Exploring postdoc, faculty and industry paths
Essay

At a career crossroads: Exploring postdoc, faculty and industry paths

Sept. 19, 2024

“At the crossroads of an academic career, postdocs find ourselves grappling with a challenging decision … about defining our trajectory in academia and shaping the impact we want to have in the academic community.”

How do you help a biochemist find a career path?
Essay

How do you help a biochemist find a career path?

Sept. 18, 2024

Industry, academia and the ASBMB join forces to introduce students job options in the sciences with a panel, networking and cheese.

'Don’t be afraid to take a different path'
Profile

'Don’t be afraid to take a different path'

Sept. 11, 2024

In 2016, MOSAIC scholar Rebecca Ann Faulkner paused her career for four years to focus on her family, a decision she believes made her a more effective and empathetic scientist.

The perverse legacy of participation in human genomic research
Essay

The perverse legacy of participation in human genomic research

Sept. 7, 2024

The story of how one person became the majority source of DNA for the Human Genome Project encapsulates 20th-century researchers’ attitudes toward donor consent, the author says.

Announcing the winners of the 鶹ýɫƬ Motifs bioart competition
Contest

Announcing the winners of the 鶹ýɫƬ Motifs bioart competition

Sept. 3, 2024

The 12 winning works of art to be featured in the 2025 ASBMB calendar were selected from 37 entries received from scientists in both academia and industry at all career stages with submissions coming from as far away as Pakistan and Brazil.

The fourth third of my career: Living the dream
Essay

The fourth third of my career: Living the dream

Aug. 28, 2024

After a few decades of being a professor, Jonathan Monroe thought it would be fun to return to the life of a postdoc after retiring. Here’s how he did it.