by Stephen Collins '74

It's hard not to notice Miselis Professor of Chemistry Bradford Mundy. On the first day of Organic Chemistry class in the fall of 1992, recalls Sarri "Sarge" Salman '94, "this tall guy walks in wearing boots and a big belt buckle that says "Bozeman," and I thought, 'Boze Man? What is that? Some kind of nickname? What kind of professor is this?'"

It didn't take long for Salman to answer his own question. Bozeman, it turned out, is where Mundy used to teach in the graduate chemistry program at Montana State University. And the story of Mundy's impact on Salman and that Organic Chemistry class is representative of the imprint he's made upon Colby since arriving three years ago.

Mundy's credentials are impeccable and his penchant for hard work is obvious, evidenced by his duties as department chair, his workload on the Promotion and Tenure Committee, and his ongoing research in the field of natural product synthesis. His reputation as a gifted scientist preceded him, but it is Mundy's enthusiasm and approachability that students often mention when describing him.

Salman says Mundy's "infectious love of chemistry" prompted him to declare chemistry as a major even though it required an extra year on campus to fulfill the requirements. Salman had high hopes for his undergraduate experience, he said recently from a lab at Boston College where he is in the first year of a doctoral program in chemistry. Mundy's research assistant, he says, he discovered "something I really loved." "I also wanted somebody to care about me and I really think Mundy did," he said.

Frank Favaloro '96, one of seven students working with Mundy as research assistants this semester, switched to a chemistry: biochemistry major after taking Mundy's organic chemistry class. "He's just a great, great teacher," he said. Favaloro praises Mundy's teaching, his accessibility and his enthusiasm, but he is most awed by the depth of Mundy's knowledge. "He reads the journals all the time. He keeps up on everything," Favaloro said. When one of the other research assistants reported in a group session that he had used "The Mundy Reaction," as it's officially known, Favaloro was sold. "I hope I can know that much someday," he said.

Evelyn Olivares '95 is working with Mundy on a new way to synthesize zoapatanol, a natural product used in Mexico as a folk medicine and a contraceptive. She said she got excited about chemistry as a high school junior in Texas, but it was her lab work with Mundy that convinced her, "This is the only thing I know I can do every day, day in and day out."

Mundy says research is the capstone of the instructional program. "It's true," he said. "Colby students are working on the same kind of projects I used to give my Ph.D. students--they are engaged in high-level research." The work goes more slowly with undergraduates because they need to learn procedures and safety habits along with the theory. "It's slower, but it is still very rewarding," he said.

Mundy's research involves making molecules to mimic natural substances produced by plants and animals. He has synthesized natural sex attractants (pheromones) of pine bark beetles, Douglas Fir Tussock moths and Asian civet cats. He developed a new way to make one of the substances in the venom of the fire ant and recreated the toxic oil of hemlock that killed Socrates.

"At Colby," he explained, "we are trying to understand how atoms such as oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur, when replacing a carbon atom, substantially alter how the materials react."

In addition to ongoing research, Mundy has published two chemistry textbooks since 1992, both with Saunders, a division of Harcourt Brace. But teaching, he says, is his greatest passion. "I enjoy showing young women and men the excitement of my field."

His career in the classroom began in 1967 at Montana State where he worked for 25 years, including two detours into administration, as the associate dean of the colleges of letters and sciences and as a National Science Foundation program officer in Washington, D.C. The administrative experience helped convince him that "I really liked my job as a professor--the teaching and research."

When he saw an ad for the position at Colby and how well he fit the criteria, he decided to apply. "It seemed a position designed for me," he said. Mundy's arrival at Colby coincided with a period when the chemistry department was on a roll. In the last five years the number of chemistry majors has more than doubled, from 15 in 1989-90 to 36 now, according to Dean of Faculty Robert McArthur. Introductory courses are increasingly popular with non-majors as well. The number of summer research assistants tripled in two years. After a dozen years during which no chemistry faculty had received tenure, two earned tenure in the last two years--Associate Professor David Bourgaize in 1994 and Associate Professor Whitney King this year. A couple of major grants poured more than $2 million into upgrading the chemistry labs and expanding the department's space into a new bridge between Keyes and Arey. And, when construction of the new Olin science building is completed, chemistry will inherit additional space.

On top of all that, this winter Mundy was named a 1994 Camille & Henry Dreyfus Scholar. In that capacity, he will have a postdoctoral fellow working alongside him in the laboratories and classrooms for the next two years. Julie Millard, Clare Booth Luce Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and a Dreyfus postdoctoral fellow at the University of Richmond before coming to Colby, nominated Mundy for the mentorship. "It's an honor for Brad," she said. "It's recognition that he's an outstanding teacher and scholar."

Colby students and chemistry professors are excited about having another chemist in the department, all expenses paid, to help with teaching and lab research. Mundy said that impressive résumés began arriving at the beginning of the year and he expects to make his selection before graduation. "It's really going to have a positive impact on the program," he said. In a small department like Colby's, there's a good chance that the new person will complement rather than duplicate expertise already on the faculty.

"This is an exciting place," said Mundy, who is in his second year as a faculty resident in the Taylor residence hall. "The facilities are outstanding, the faculty are exciting--thoroughly engaged in teaching and scholarship--and the administration is outstanding." And despite coming from a graduate program, he's impressed with the equipment. "People may moan, but I challenge them to visit many state schools, and they'll know they're in hog heaven," he said. "I wish more students had the opportunity to see other places so that they could realize the excellence of Colby. We have visiting scientists come to our seminar program and tell the students that the facilities are as good as many graduate programs offer. From my own experience I can agree."

McArthur sees Mundy as a case study of how an endowed chair can help the college. "After Frank Miselis '43, endowed the chair in chemistry we launched a national search for a senior person and recruited Mundy. He's had an immediate impact in chemistry, in the science division and on Colby as a whole as a member of the promotion and tenure committee and as an active participant in faculty recruitment efforts."

But the industrious Mundy is not resting on his laurels. "It is my hope to have one of the leading undergraduate chemistry departments in the U.S.," he said. "Give us a couple of more years and I think we have a real shot to get there."

Shelve "Mockingbird?" Responding to a controversy in a Spokane, Wash., high school over attempts to remove the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird from freshman English classes because of its portrayal of blacks, Cedric Gael Bryant told the Spokesman-Review that the key issue is how the book is taught. Bryant, associate professor of English and African-American literature, said To Kill a Mockingbird is "justifiably reviled" unless it is put into proper context by the teacher presenting it. "The book reaffirms what already is a given for African-Americans: that it's very easy to be victimized without the slightest provocation and the chances go up exponentially if you are a black male," Bryant told the newspaper. "Any sixteen-year-old black person knows there are more options [than those presented in the book] and rejects. . .polarized social constructions for black men." Bryant said To Kill a Mockingbird should be taught "because of its historical importance and as a metaphor for its own racial moment." But he questioned whether it should be the only novel dealing with race in a high school literature curriculum. He suggested Toni Morrison's Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, Beloved, as an alternative.

Shrinking Waste Line Distinguished Presidential Professor of American Government G. Calvin Mackenzie told USA Today that despite suggestions to the contrary, federal government actually shrank during the first two years of President Clinton's administration. Pointing out that the federal work force decreased by 86,000 between 1992 and 1994, Mackenzie said, "Government isn't getting bigger. It's getting smaller." "These are some of the most significant cuts we've ever had in peace time," he said.

Guns and Butter The Miami Herald, in a report about profiteering schemes by former military officers in Latin American countries, quoted Associate Professor of Economics and International Studies Patrice Franko. Franko, who has done extensive research on the Latin American defense industry, said that many of the region's largest armies are getting rid of military industries established many years ago. "They are going through a divestiture," she said. In many countries, however, army officials are involved in business operations that have nothing to do with their country's defense, the article reported.