Dr. edward
Carlson abiding scientist, Teacher, and Mentor
By Laura scholz
EDUCATION IS IN DR. EDWARD Carlson’s blood. His mother Rachel taught eight grades in a one-room schoolhouse in rural Wisconsin, and Carlson knew he’d follow in her footsteps the first time he stepped in front of a classroom. “I had a brilliant high school biology teacher, and one of our assignments was to give a short lecture to the class. 18
NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Fall 2010
I really enjoyed the whole experience— prepping the materials, being in front of the classroom, and teaching my fellow students. I was immediately hooked,” said Carlson, who recently completed 40 consecutive years in medical teaching, including nearly 30 as chair of UND’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences’ Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology. What you might not know about this soft-spoken, dedicated professor, who retired as department chair on June 30, is that his teaching career nearly took an entirely different direction. As a college student, the science aficionado was also a budding musician who played both trumpet and piano. He was unsure which path to pursue when freshman music theory got the better of him. “I just wasn’t into sight-singing and all that solfège stuff,” he joked. So, he switched his major to biology, and music’s loss was UND’s gain. Carlson first came to UND as a PhD student in 1966 at the recommendation of an undergraduate professor at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota. “He was an alum and recommended that I apply to the PhD program,” said Carlson. A National Defense Education Act fellowship paid for his four years of schooling at UND and launched his career teaching future physicians. After graduating from UND in 1970, Carlson moved on to warmer climes, spending seven years teaching at the University of Arizona and four years at UC-Davis. What lured him back to North Dakota? “Well, the opportunity to become chair of the department from which you’ve obtained your PhD only comes once in a lifetime, and it was such a