“You can do you” is how Dr. Frederic Bertley described what an authentic science career can be. COSI’s energetic president and CEO brought his mission of making science accessible to all to Bexley High School on November 16. During two student assemblies Bertley described all of the amazing opportunities in science now and in the future He noted that currently there are 2.4 million STEM jobs unfilled. He invited students to start seeing science differently.
Dr. Bertley’s presentations were funded by the Bexley Education Foundation’s Dr. Judah Folkman (Class of 1950) Science Fund. The fund aims to inform Bexley High School students about the variety of career opportunities available in the sciences. The annual Scientist-in-Residence program is inspired by the work of pioneering cancer researcher, Judah M. Folkman, MD a 1950 Bexley graduate best-known for his work in the field of tumor angiogenesis, the process by which a tumor attracts blood vessels to nourish and sustain itself. Early in his career, Dr. Bertley was part of a vaccine research group that was conducting research in the same building at Harvard Medical School that housed Dr. Folkman’s lab.