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THOMAS GEORGE:
SCIENCE AND ALL THAT JAZZ
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By Christine Imbs
Listening to Tom George play jazz piano it’s hard to imagine him doing anything else. It comes so naturally to him. But then again, he’s been at it a very long time.
“I was classically trained in piano at
age six. Then in college I took up the pipe organ and became a classical pipe organist. But I’ve always liked jazz,” he says smiling. “In classical music if you make a mistake
it’s just wrong. But in jazz a mistake is
an opportunity.”
Opportunities are something George knows a little about. It was the right opportunities that he says eventually led to his current position as chancellor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
“I really didn’t have a career plan,” he says. “Things just sort of naturally took their course. And that’s something I tell students or people just starting out. You don’t have to have a very specific game plan for your career. If you enjoy what you’re doing and do it as well as you can, opportunities will come. And they will not only be the opportunities you want, but they’ll be the right ones.”
That George’s career path led to the halls of academia, rather than the stage or a recording studio,
is not surprising when you con-sider his parents. His father was a che-mist, who also taught part-time at Drexel University in
Philadelphia. And his mother, a nurse, went back to college to earn her teaching degree.
“It was the 1950s, so she
was an anomaly,” George says. “It’s very common now, but at the time she really stuck out. Faculty members even told her that
a housewife with three kids had no business taking classes with a bunch of teenagers. Actually, she was way ahead of her time.”
With this as an example, George attended Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in chemistry and mathematics. He then earned a master of science degree and doctor of philosophy degree in theoretical chemistry from Yale University, followed by postdoctoral appointments at MIT and the University of California at Berkeley. He joined the faculty at the University of Rochester in New York in 1972, where he was promoted to full professor of chemistry at the age of 29.
“I think I went with the University of Rochester rather than into industry, because the faculty helped shape their program in terms of their research and even their teaching to a large extent,” George says. “Once you have your course you have a lot of latitude and control over it. I guess that appealed to me.”
Kind of like jazz. George says although there is generally structure to jazz, there’s still some freelance going on. And it’s this improvisation that appeals to him most. It’s also what appeals to him as a researcher.
“I’m a theorist,” he explains. “I do basically laser physics/nanotechnology kind of research. And when you get to that level
of doing research, it’s improvisatory.”
George became UMSL’s seventh chancellor in September 2003 after spending seven years as chancellor of the University
of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. It was an opportunity to move from a rural setting back to
a metropolitan area. And since UMSL
is the only metropolitan public research university in the St. Louis region, and George
is still very much an active researcher, it seems a perfect match.
“Of course I knew about this institution. I’ve known faculty here for a number of years. And as a scientist, I’ve been to the University of Missouri-Columbia and lectured at the University of Missouri-Rolla,” he explains. “So I’ve had a lot of familiarity with the system. I was very happily recruited and I’m very happy to be here.”
Asked if there’s anything else he’d rather do, he quickly says no. “I don’t think you
can ask for a better profession. You can explore your discipline to its fullest and you get paid for it. Maybe not much, but they will pay you,” he says laughing. “Now where else will they do that?”
TALKINGPOINTS
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BORN: Philadelphia, Pa.
FAMILY: Married to Barbara Harbach, a
professor of music at UMSL. They have three cats–Tannhauser, Lohengrin and Rienzi–all named after Wagner operas.
FAVORITE MUSICIANS: Jazz pianists Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans.
IMPRESSIONS OF ST. LOUIS: “People pull together and philanthropy is high. And there’s a high respect for quality. It just seems to have everything, yet with a
small town appeal.”
SPORTS FAVORITE: “I’ve become a Cardinals fan, but still follow the Philadelphia Phillies. And although I’m a Rams fan, having lived in Wisconsin, I
have a soft spot for the Packers.”
MUSIC: Recorded a CD with trumpeter /flugelhornist Michael Kaupa entitled
Close Your Eyes: Women Jazz Composers under the Hester Park label. |
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