Professor and Biologist
David Sadava to Retire

David Sadava, the Pritzker Family Foundation Professor of Biology in the Joint Science Program, will retire at the end of June, following a 37-year teaching career at CMC, during which he mentored and guided countless students, including their decisions on whether to pursue careers in biology or medicine.
"It was time to step aside for younger faculty, as well as for me to pursue other interests," Sadava said. "I will miss the inquiring minds of students, fascinating colleagues, and the Athenaeum."
An expert in a wide array of diverse subjects, including Intelligent Design and pediatrics, Sadava nurtured a particular interest in cancer research and was elected to membership in the American Association for Cancer Research in 1995. In addition to numerous other awards and academic citations, in 2004 and 2005, he received CMC's prestigious G. David Huntoon Senior Teaching Award.
Future plans for Sadava include co-authoring a biology textbook and continuing lab research on cancer therapy at the City of Hope Medical Center. "And now I have time to read all those books I set aside," Sadava said. "Most importantly, I get to have lunch often with my wife."
Clearly, Mrs. Sadava's gain is CMC's loss, especially if the heartfelt encomiums of alumni are any indication.
In an interview with CMC's then-titled Profile magazine, alumna Oname Burlingame '96 recalled needing direction in her undergraduate studies. "I went to Dr. Sadava, and I don't even think he knew me really well at the time," she said. "I told him that I was interested in doing an MD/PhD and he said, Well, you need to do some research over the summer,' and kind of mapped it out for me."
According to former student Amy Drayer '99, Sadava brought an "infectious sense of wonder" to the genetics course he taught. "If you've spent even a minute reading about the human genome project, you know what I mean," she has said. "I had the sense at every moment that I was learning something incredible from a leader in his field."
In another Profile write-up, Jeff Hertz '82, who hosted an Evening with Professor Sadava for the College's Denver alumni association chapter, recalled that the most interesting aspect of Sadava's classroom discussions was his description of the research work by his undergraduate students.
"Many are involved directly in research and have written papers published in medical and scientific journals," Hertz said. "It helped remind me how fortunate the students are at CMC. At larger universities, only graduate students would have the opportunity to complete this research."
Indeed, Sadava's fondest recollection of teaching at CMC was working with bright students at an institution that truly values education.
"I chose Claremont to be free to do diverse research and to retain broad intellectual interests," Sadava said. "All my goals have been fulfilled. The students have been consistently excellent; CMC and the Joint Science program value the teacher-scholar model where education and student mentoring are as important as research; I have published research in many areas of biology, ranging from bio-chemistry of plant and human development, to drugs and the brain, to cancer; and CMC is, in my view and those of many scientists, the intellectual community that many universities and colleges only dream about attaining."
In Sadava's view, CMC's Joint Science program has been way ahead of the game in its emphasis on undergraduate research. "From the time I arrived in the 1970s, there has been an emphasis on student-faculty interaction in the research laboratory, often leading to research articles," he said. "I am proud of the fact that in my years at the College, I co-authored literally dozens of research articles with students, almost all of whom went on to graduate or professional school, and then to careers in scientific professions."
Professor of biology Newton Copp has been a colleague of Sadava's in the Joint Science program since 1980 and believes Sadava set new standards in the areas of teaching, research, and services to the College and the community.
"David seemed to set the standard not just in one or two of those areas but all three," Copp said. "He'll certainly be remembered for that, and for his interest in horse racing, which he always said was the reason he took this job in the first place (to be close to Santa Anita Park)."
Velda Ross, program administrator at the Keck Science Center who has worked alongside Sadava for 11 years, believes the professor's dry sense of humor, love of Smarties candies, and championing of The Simpson's are all endearing traits, but that his, "patience, ability to relate to others, knowledge of biology, and sincere caring about the students will be his true lasting legacy."
"Science in general and my field of biology in particular, is dynamic," Sadava says. "When I compare when I taught in my last years with what I taught in my first year, a lot is different. In fact, one subject that I taught at the end of my careerbiotechnologydid not even exist when I started."
One of Sadava's major teaching objectives has been to convey excitement while instilling humility that knowledge is expanding at a great rate. A second objective has been to impart to students the wonder of critical thinking.
"Biology is not just memory work of a bunch of Latin names," Sadava said. "It's understanding how living things and their processes relate and how experiments lead to this understanding. From the beginning of my career I emphasized reading research articles and describing experiments which was not easy for students: It is never easy when the answers are not apparent."
But standing firm in his credo has yielded wondrous results for Sadava through the years. "When students from my classes, and from CMC's science program in general, go on to graduate or professional schools, that are often far ahead of their colleagues from famous universities in their analytical ability," he said. "I always approached teaching with humility. In a classroom or lab, the students are more important than I am."
That last self-effacing sentiment (that he's less important than his students)although characteristic of Sadava's core modestywould probably never pass the critical thinking rigor of his students. And that, perhaps more than anything else, testifies to how much he will be missed.