Going to Sea without Maps or Making Maps without Going to Sea.

Going to Sea without Maps or Making Maps without Going to Sea.

David B. Allison - October, 2022

?This week, my colleagues and I were treated to two very special events here in the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington. We were joined at our Dean's Alliance (https://go.iu.edu/40L9) meeting by former Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams—now adjunct professor at Indiana University and professor at Purdue University—and Hoosier all the way. We also hosted the first of our 2022–23 Distinguished Colloquium speakers, Professor David Marrero.

?Many commentators throughout history have pointed out the necessary and valuable connections between the scientific and scholarly incarnations of "ready, aim" in the sequence of "ready, aim, fire!" All too often, especially in fields like public health, nutrition, and weight control, we rush in like fools where angels fear to tread, not having done our science homework, not having engaged in the sequence of "ready, aim" before "fire!" operating too much on what Adam Smith called “the poison of enthusiasm and superstition” and too little on what he called “the great antidote” – namely science (https://bit.ly/3CKUzi6). ??

?Still, too many of us remain in the proverbial ivory tower—thinking deep thoughts, but not taking them out for trial—and occasionally acting as though we have no obligation to others as when, for example, Isaac Newton developed calculus but refused to publish papers on it (https://bit.ly/3RS0hmC) or when G.H. Hardy did great mathematical work only to later assert in "A Mathematician's Apology" that he had never in his career done anything useful because useful mathematics (i.e. applied science or scholarship) was not beautiful (https://bit.ly/3MmIm6h).

?Nearly 100 years ago, Indiana University President Bryan received a copy of a "Saturday Evening Post" editorial by George Horace Lorimer in which the author discusses "pure" vs. "applied" science (https://bit.ly/3T3yvVg). In his observation, "Pure's Old Guard consists largely of college professors. The Old Guard is loyal, but during the past decade the undergraduate body in our colleges has doubled, and men who used to do a little teaching and much research are now condemned to the treadmill of the classroom…The advancement of learning in America will inevitably mark time or proceed along a narrow front unless something is done to finance Pure Science."

Although a professor in Arizona, Dr. Marrero is actually a Hoosier and has been a professor and academic leader within IU. His talk was on applications of the diabetes prevention program model and the prevention of cardiometabolic disease in broad swaths of the general population. He is adapting the model, scaling it up tremendously, and importantly testing and has tested its efficacy and effectiveness. In this work, Dr. Marrero shows us that a single scholar can do great work both in staying in the ivory tower and making the maps, but then taking the maps outside the ivory tower and going out to sea to make a difference in the world.

Past Surgeon General and now Professor Jerome Adams—a lover of mathematics, hard-minded thinker, and a fellow scholar committed to diversity—is every bit the sailor who has gone to sea with the maps to make a difference in the world. Dr. Adams talked with us about a broad range of topics, with a particular focus on how new technologies could be leveraged to increase health more efficiently for more people. He embraces new discovery and is part of the process of promoting and participating in that new discovery. At the same time, he embraces the opportunity, need, and obligation for applying those discoveries and making an impact to better the lives of our fellow Hoosiers and people worldwide.

I salute my distinguished colleagues.