Faculty Q&A: Robert Hamersley, Ph.D.

Robert Hamersley, Ph.D.

Assistant Dean of Faculty Professor of Environmental Biogeochemistry Science Laboratory Director

1. PLEASE PROVIDE A BRIEF BACKGROUND ABOUT YOURSELF.

I am Canadian, born in Alberta, and raised between Canada, the USA, and Japan. I am the oldest of seven children. As a teenager, when I was not in school, I was working on farms, cutting hay and milking cows and goats.

2. FROM WHICH INSTITUTIONS DO YOU HOLD DEGREES?

I received my B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Victoria, Canada, where I studied plant ecology and evolution. My Master of Environmental Design is from the University of Calgary, Canada, where I completed a Master’s thesis on the design of artificial wetlands for water treatment based on research I conducted at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. I received my Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography in the Joint Program between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where I researched the transformations of plant nutrients by salt marsh plants and soil bacteria. I also conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Massachusetts, the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, and the University of Southern California. I have been working at SUA since 2007.

3. WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO SUA?

After my undergraduate degree, all of my education and research were conducted at institutions with no undergraduate program. And all the jobs I searched for were at research universities and institutions. Although I had never heard of SUA, I responded to an ad for the position because it was in my specialty and because it was near where I was working at USC. As I looked into SUA, I became intrigued by the story of its founding, and by its mission, as well as by the connection to Japan, where I had lived for five years as a child. When I came onto campus for the interview, I was impressed at the way students greeted me in passing, although they did not know who I was. SUA seemed a very unique and newly founded place, where I thought I might fit in better than I did in the world of research.

4. WHAT DISTINGUISHES SOKA STUDENTS IN YOUR OPINION?

SUA is a very diverse place. Having grown up attending school in a language I was not comfortable in, and having to adapt to new cultures, I am happy to be teaching at a school with many students who are sharing that experience. I am also glad to be teaching such small classes, where I can get to know each student better. I have made many friends among students while at SUA and keep in touch with and have visits from alumni, whom I mentored as far back as my first years at SUA. Now that they are professionals, I am proud to have seen their development from adolescents to adults living contributive lives.

5. WHAT INSPIRES YOU?

Like my father and his father, I am a very pragmatic person, so the word “inspire” is not one I use often! I am strongly driven by the desire to use whatever abilities I have, to do good in the world. I like to see things done well and I admire efficiency and competency. I believe in doing everything I do to the best of my abilities and beyond and expect the same of everyone around me. That being said, I think the world is both funny and exciting, and I like to explore as many different aspects of it as I can.

6. DO YOU HAVE OTHER REFLECTIONS ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A FACULTY MEMBER AT SUA?

During my time at SUA, I have had so many opportunities to contribute in ways outside the classroom. Besides serving at various times as Director of the Science and Mathematics Program and of the Environmental Studies concentration, I was also a founding member of Environmental Studies, and contributed for many years to the planning for the Life Sciences concentration. It was very exciting to be involved from the very beginning with the design of Curie Hall, and to be able to contribute to the startup of the laboratory facilities in the building. I have also been very active in the University’s Campus Sustainability Committee since its inception in 2010 and worked with a group of students in an Independent Study course to successfully achieve a Bronze STARS rating and then a Silver STARS rating for SUA from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.