Northridge Magazine

Part teacher, part friend, part confidant, part counselor, part Dutch uncle, part coach, part judge, part sounding board, part role model, a mentor is an impossible thing to be. A mentor special enough to receive a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring is a thing even more impossible.

The White House found only 22 such individuals in all the land, and will salute them at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue this fall for their work in ensuring that “the next generation of scientists and engineers will better reflect the diversity of the United States.”

“There is no higher calling than furthering the educational advancement of our nation’s young people,” said President Obama.

Cal State Northridge biology professor Steven Oppenheimer, one of the 22, has spent a lifetime answering the call and earning the honor.

In his 38 productive years at CSUN, Oppenheimer—who cheerfully answers to “Dr. O”—has mentored some 200 long-term student researchers, many of them women or underrepresented ethnic minorities. He has co-authored, with more than 700 mostly undergraduate students, somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 peer-reviewed papers, abstracts and presentations.

“That, I think, is what I’m most proud of, that there is such a high level of student co-authorship,” said the honoree, quick to share the recognition with committed CSUN faculty colleagues with whom he has partnered over the years.

Drop in on Oppenheimer’s lab during any given semester and up to 100 or more students can be seen at work on the research he considers crucial to any student who expects to get into an advanced program.

How does he mentor and manage so many? “First of all,” Oppenheimer explained, “my office is in the lab. In fact, I don’t have an office. I’m right in the middle; no glass, no wall. I’m sitting here every day; I can see what’s going on…It’s a very well-defined and organized operation with lots of controls.”

Second, a team of student leaders helps the professor set up experiments and train new students, at least some of whom may have been passed over elsewhere.

“I like to give every student who is interested the chance to do some research,” said Oppenheimer, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “I’ve seen too many cases where the GPA may not be that good; the kid may look a little disheveled. Some of those turn out to be the best.”

Recalling his own comfortable upbringing in Brooklyn, Oppenheimer is in awe of what is achieved by his students, a number of whom have “never had much education or access to education,” he said. “They work 40 hours a week and still excel in their classes and their research, and they end up at places like Harvard.”

Besides Harvard, Oppenheimer protégés have earned doctorates or medical degrees from graduate institutions such as Yale, Cornell, UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins and Stanford.

— Brenda Roberts

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