{"id":2922,"date":"2019-06-18T11:02:56","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T15:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/?p=2922"},"modified":"2025-07-25T15:28:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T19:28:58","slug":"a-light-on-bob-slocum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-light-on-bob-slocum\/","title":{"rendered":"A Light on Bob Slocum"},"content":{"rendered":"

In January 2019, the journal Plant, Cell, and Environment<\/em> published an article called \u201cEctopic Expression of a Pea Apyrase Enhances Root System Architecture and Drought Survival in Arabidopsis and Soybean.\u201d One of the authors was Robert D. Slocum, Bob to his friends and colleagues, professor of biology to his hundreds of former Goucher students.<\/p>\n

The paper is the result of collaborative research with Slocum\u2019s former doctoral mentor at the University of Texas at Austin and funded by a biotech company called Texas Crop Science. It is Slocum\u2019s 50th peer-reviewed publication. \u201cThat\u2019s a big deal for me, being at a small college,\u201d Slocum said, as that kind of publication rate usually happens at big research universities where the teaching load is much different.<\/p>\n

Slocum retired from Goucher at the end of the Spring 2019 semester. He taught at Goucher for 27 years, specializing in plant physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology.<\/p>\n

His work has not been confined to the stone walls of campus, however. Slocum spent three months after college studying lichens in Antarctica, and continued to study the organism for his master\u2019s at Ohio State University. For his doctorate at UT Austin, Slocum studied phytochrome, the plant pigment that senses the transitions from day to night to day and helps plants know when to flower.<\/p>\n

Then, during a post-doc at Yale in 1982, Slocum participated in one of the first plant experiments aboard the space shuttle. \u201cPeople recognized that plants would be an important part of a sustainable ecosystem in long-term space flight,\u201d Slocum said. They wanted to know how plants grow in a micro- or low-gravity environment. The shuttle was only in flight for a week, but the results were interesting. \u201cPlants use gravity to orient themselves,\u201d he said, but as long as there is a light source, plants will grow toward it. They appeared to develop normally in the absence of gravity.<\/p>\n

From 2011 to 2012, Slocum took a leave of absence to serve as a program director at the National Science Foundation (NSF). He analyzed data from the previous decade to see how the success rate for NSF funding compared at large research universities and small colleges. Contrary to popular belief, \u201cthe success rates [at small colleges] were actually the same as, or better than, research universities\u2019,\u201d he said. The NSF was thrilled.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s had chances to leave Goucher, but it\u2019s not something he ever considered. The Biology Program is like a family to Slocum; he loves getting up and coming to work every day. \u201cWe have each other\u2019s backs,\u201d he said of his colleagues.<\/p>\n

His teaching philosophy is to work hard, play hard. He enjoys socializing with his students and colleagues, with nature hikes, the year-end BioBlast party, and annual trips to Longwood Gardens. He loves to teach; he\u2019s outgoing, and it suits him.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s hardly done. As his career at Goucher ends, he\u2019s not yet finished with the research. He\u2019ll make a few more trips to Texas to work with his mentor\u2014continuing to work with plants engineered with a gene that improves the water usage and nutrient uptake in crops. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to understand the molecular basis for that,\u201d Slocum said.<\/p>\n

He and his wife look forward to traveling outside the restrictions of the academic calendar. Slocum will have more time for gardening and photography. And there will be time, in fact, to teach the occasional biology course, as needed. He always knew he would be a teacher. Why stop now?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor Slocum’s work went beyond campus. During a 1982 post-doc at Yale, he participated in one of the first plant experiments aboard the space shuttle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":2988,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7935],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[87484],"class_list":["post-2922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-goucher-today"],"yoast_head":"\nA Light on Bob Slocum | Goucher Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Professor Slocum's work went beyond campus. 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