On the Front Lines of Cutting-Edge Science Research

Diverse Perspectives at Cushing Readied Babs Marrone ’70 for Her Career

Babetta “Babs” Marrone ’70 has built a career in areas of science that barely existed when she was at Cushing Academy.

For nearly four decades she served as a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, focused on cutting-edge projects, from how hormones affect the brain, to work on the Human Genome Project, and finally to things related to climate change. She holds the distinction of being a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. And, in October, she was promoted to being a LANL Laboratory Fellow. “That’s been really fun for me and challenging, just being able to pivot and adapt with changing missions and changing national needs over the years,” she says.

Marrone grew up just a mile away from Cushing, on Center Street, and found that the Academy provided great female role models who inspired and encouraged her. Her brother and uncle attended Cushing before her, and her sister and daughter, Robin Yoshida ’11, came after her.

One of those teachers saw in Marrone a spark that she thought would fit well at a new, very nontraditional college being founded. Marrone was in the first class to enroll at Hampshire College in 1970.

“No grades. No majors. So Hampshire was quite progressive,” Marrone says. “Academically, it was a real eye-opener in a different way than Cushing was.

“Cushing was an eye-opener for me because of the people from all over the world, and even all over different parts of the country,” Marrone remembers.

“My family didn’t even travel all that far, so just meeting all sorts of different people was a major life change for me. I had a close friend who was from Thailand, and it was really very nice.”

Hampshire was where science grabbed hold of her, as she fulfilled a requirement. “I ended up in a neuroscience class, and that was like, ‘Man, this is kind of interesting stuff,’” Marrone remembers thinking.

She also worked doing research in the psychology department at the nearby University of Massachusetts. Graduate school was a natural next step, and Marrone earned a PhD at Rutgers University in 1978. Her focus was on neuroscience, hormones, and interaction with the brain and neurotransmitter systems to regulate behavior.

Next came a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin and then a job at St. Louis University. In the mid-1980s, she headed to Los Alamos, where they were building neuroscience capability at the national security lab.

Many think of Los Alamos only in terms of atomic weapons research, but Marrone says that her work in neuroscience was a perfect fit. “Since the Manhattan Project, there was a lot of interest in the health effects of radiation,” she says. “There was concern about fallout from above-ground testing

1941 and the public exposure to radiation, and then …health effects on those working with radioactive materials, even as part of cleanup efforts. So, understanding the health effects of radiation very early on became a part of the national security program at Los Alamos.”

Over time that focus turned more and more to studying the impact of radiation on the cell, on DNA, and on molecular effects such as cancer. Marrone found herself involved in the Human Genome Project. “We can’t really understand the effects of radiation on the genome unless we understand the genome better,” she says. “I was fortunate enough to be part of that initial effort.”

Her more recent focus has been closely tied to climate change issues. She has looked at using biological systems for energy production, as well as how to modify the products we use in our everyday life — such as plastic — to minimize harm to the planet. “It’s really been trying to harness biology to help us be more resilient and adaptive to climate change. Now, with the big influx in funding to support the transition to clean energy, we’re essentially drinking from a fire hose here in terms of technologies that we could bring to bear on energy transition,” she says.

Being female in a male-dominated field has had its challenges, Marrone admits. “Especially when you get more advanced in your career, a number of women drop out,” she says. “Definitely when I got to Los Alamos there were no women in leadership positions, even in the biological sciences, or very few. Even today, sometimes I still find myself as the only woman in the room, but it’s gotten so much better here. My boss now is a woman.”

The diversity of students she interacted with at Cushing helped her navigate sometimes being the only woman in the room. “My peers were just so diverse, and so that has been really helpful going into new situations,” Marrone says. “I have more of an appreciation for diversity and what it means, than I would have, growing up in my little town of Ashburnham — 2,000 people, all from almost the same backgrounds. The world exposure broadened my perspective, and I will be forever grateful to Cushing for that experience.”