Teaching a Genomics Workshop in Bangladesh
IIGB Academic Administrator Glenn Hicks taught a workshop called “Workshop on Genomics and Proteomics,” from July 16 through July 24 at the University of Dhaka, the premier public university in Bangladesh. Aimed at providing an overview of genomics and proteomics, the workshop, the first of its kind that UC Riverside has offered in Bangladesh, was funded by the World Bank and hosted by the University of Dhaka’s Botany Department.
Hicks found that although the University of Dhaka is a large university, its infrastructure is limited in terms of opportunities for the most up-to-date research and postgraduate studies utilizing advanced methods and technologies. For example, the laboratories he toured had basic equipment for molecular biology research, but access to advanced instrumentation was limited. Still, the students and faculty were eager to learn, he found, and sincere in their desire for more high-quality research.
The trip to Bangladesh, his first, was an opportunity for Hicks to make a significant contribution beyond the UCR campus. An early difference he made there was getting the workshop participants to ask questions in the ten lectures he presented. “In the United States, we have this tradition of challenging and arguing constructively,” he said. “We encourage this, and it is a resource that can drive scientific inquiry. The impression from my visit is that Bangladesh is a more formal, perhaps hierarchal society, and it is a challenge for students to step out of their traditional role. It takes some effort to get students to speak up and engage in open discussion.”
His encouragement and teaching style paid off. After his first lecture Hicks found that the students became increasingly interactive, even interrupting with questions.
Even before Hicks’s trip, Bangladesh had ties to UCR. Several Bangladeshi students are being trained today by faculty within the UCR Dept of Botany and Plant Sciences and other departments. Further, the Institute for Integrative Genome Biology has several researchers with ties to Bangladesh, including geneticist Julia Bailey-Serres who works on flood-tolerant rice.
If given another chance, Hicks would readily lead a workshop in Bangladesh. What his brief visit to that country’s capital taught him was that education is critical for all of our futures and that with patience education could help overcome even great cultural and economic differences.
“My visit there was rewarding, and I learned about a new culture,” he said “It took about two weeks of living and teaching there for me to truly understand that education is one of the important keys to increasing quality of life and reducing misunderstanding among people and nations. Such global outreach is yet another example of how UCR is fulfilling its mission as an institution of higher learning.”