A great thing about being a scientist is working with
collaborations and forging a timely and effective partnership.
Truly, the Health Sciences Department here at the Museum could not
exist without these key partners.
This week, Yo Pearl salutes Dr. Bev Tepper, an esteemed nutritionist who
studies how sensory perception affects what we eat. Dr. Tepper
currently serves as director of the Sensory Evaluation Laboratory
at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and also as the
Vice Chair of the Rutgers Institutional Review Board.
(For those of you who know me well enough, you can likely hear
the echoes of the Rutgers fight song ringing in your ears as
you well know as I have a hard time not singing it whenever Rutgers
is mentioned- RU Rah Rah!)
I first met Dr. Tepper at the 2010 Annual Meeting for the
Association for Chemoreception Sciences, and then we reunited at
this year's meeting. What drew me and my team to Bev and her work
was that she was passionate and humble, her work explored the
far reaches of what is being done with taste and
nutrition, and last but not least, she was willing to
help out newcomers to the field of chemoreception. I asked her if
she would be willing to visit the Museum and our community-based
lab and help us to navigate the next steps for conducting
audience-focused research.
With that, Dr. Tepper found herself on a flight from Newark to
Denver. She arrived on a Wednesday evening, and as it turns out,
the Museum was hosting its annual Donor Awards Dinner, and so she
came as my guest. It was a fabulous introduction to the Museum and
to our incredible community that support us. We had cocktails in
the dioramas and dinner in the atrium on the first floor. It was a
great night to welcome a collaborator.
Dr. Tepper gave an engaging talk the next morning as part of our
Health Sciences Seminar Series we host for our volunteers in the
lab and in Expedition Health. The focus was nutrition and taste,
and something interesting that we do not fully explore in our lab
is how psychology really impacts what we eat. For example,
consciously restricting your diet, being food adventurous and food
neophobia are a few classifications that can override genetics. The
seminar was followed by a brown bag lunch with staff and volunteers
in the Harry T. Lewis Jr room that overlooks the park, the city and
the mountains (I had to show off Colorful Colorado). Then we were
down to business.
Dr. Tepper toured the lab and went through our enrollment
protocols. She met with each staff member and learned about the
excellent opportunities we have for working with the public and
conversely, the challenges that go into making sure our research is
available to the community and hold up to scientifically sound
standards. We capped the visit off with a tour of the Rocky
Mountain Taste and Smell Center and lunch with Dr. Tom Finger and
Dr. Sue Kinnamon, both at the University of Colorado Anschutz
Medical Campus.
It was an incredible two days having Bev here to help us. We
explored everything from the basic logistics of human participation
to in depth collaborations and how our labs can dive into untouched
subjects. Yo Pearl salutes Dr. Bev Tepper for her
dedication to new ideas, unconventional collaborations and
excellent science and science communication.
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