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| Jon Hunner |
by Julie M. Hughes
The Atomic Age created the potential for changing humanity – in both good and bad ways.
Jon Hunner, an associate professor of history at NMSU, has researched the Atomic Age for several books, including his most recent, Inventing Los Alamos: The Growth of an Atomic Community.
“I wanted to understand how life in Los Alamos during World War II and in the early Cold War era was the same or different for families,” he says. “I wanted this book to chronicle what it was like to grow up in a top-secret community.”
Hunner, whose father safeguarded nuclear weapons for the Air Force, says he has always been fascinated with the development of the Atomic Age.
“Most historians are attracted to topics that have some personal meaning. I grew up with photos from the development of the atomic bomb on my family room wall,” he says.
For his next book project, Hunner has used grants from NMSU’s College of Arts and Sciences and the American Institute of Physics to research the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Hunner is writing a biography about Oppenheimer, who was the civilian director of Los Alamos National Laboratory during World War II when the atomic bomb was being developed.
“Without his leadership, the United States might not have been the first to build an atomic bomb,” Hunner says.
Hunner also is the director of the Public History Program at NMSU, which trains students to go into communities and interpret and preserve their culture. He and his students have published two books of historic photographs, one on Santa Fe and the other on Las Cruces. Hunner and his students also have conducted surveys of historic buildings in Columbus, Mesilla, Las Cruces and Las Trampas, New Mexico.
From 1998 to 2001, Hunner organized the list of the Most Endangered Historic Places in New Mexico for the New Mexico Heritage Preservation Alliance and served on the Cultural Properties Review Committee for the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division.
“We don’t know the future, but we know parts of the past,” Hunner says. “If we interview people, preserve buildings and put up museums, we know where we came from and are better prepared for the future. History is often stranger than fiction.”
In 2001, Hunner was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to assist Vaxjo University in Sweden in developing a public history program and an American studies program. His course, “Time Traveling through New Mexico’s Past,” has received a commendation from the American Association for State and Local History. Hunner also recently received a Heritage Preservation Award from the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division in recognition of his leadership of NMSU’s Public History Program.
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| Elba Serrano |
by Mary Benanti
While women are sometimes discouraged from pursuing careers in math and science, Elba Serrano had a different experience. As the daughter of a career Army sergeant from Puerto Rico, she was educated at the U.S military’s Department of Defense schools around the world.
“My teachers were men. … They always encouraged me,” Serrano says.
Serrano came to the United States to attend the University of Rochester, where she earned an undergraduate degree in physics. While there, she discovered the medical school library. She literally read the shelves, book by book, and found herself drawn to biology.
Serrano earned a Ph.D. from Stanford University in biological sciences, specializing in biophysics and neurosciences. She joined the NMSU faculty in 1991 and now serves as an associate professor of biology. She established the university’s molecular and developmental neurobiology laboratory, where she and her students focus on sensory cells.
Last year, Serrano received a prestigious R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health. The half-million-dollar grant to research the inner ear could ultimately benefit the nearly 700 million people worldwide who have hearing or balance difficulties.
The reasons for hearing and balance problems are varied: genetics, inherited disorders and noise pollution all come into play. An epidemic proportion of young people are experiencing some form of hearing loss, as are members of the baby boom generation.
A long-term goal of Serrano’s research is to help find a way to restore or regenerate sensory inner ear cells after damage or trauma.
“Because the sensory cells in the inner ear are neuro (or nerve) cells, they do not repair or regenerate themselves once damaged by injury or trauma,” Serrano says. “And the inner ear is so complex that engineers can’t build a device that replicates the talents of the human ear.”
Because of the complexity of the hearing process, Serrano’s research uses a multidisciplinary approach that draws from biophysics, anatomy, tissue culture and molecular biology. The research is intended to furnish basic knowledge that could lead to establishing treatments for hearing and balance disorders.
She hopes her R01 grant will be the first of many such grants for NMSU.
“If we get enough of them, we become eligible for large grants for instrumentation, building renovations and training,” she says. “We also can compete for NIH centers, which are given to universities that have a critical mass of faculty with R01 grants.”
Today Serrano shares a tradition of encouragement with her own students. She also shares her belief that “science is a service.”
“Scientists have the opportunity to ask questions and find answers. One of their goals should be to deliver the fruits of science to the people,” she says.
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