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BASSAM SHAKHASHIRI
This year’s recipient of the AAAS Award for
Public Understanding of Science and Technology
is Dr. Bassam Shakhashiri. He is honored for his
tireless commitment to educating the public,
especially children, about the nature and
wonder of science.
"Scientist by training, teacher and public servant by trade, advocate by conviction,
optimist by nature"—how Dr. Bassam Shakhashiri describes himself.
In 1995, the Encyclopedia Britannica’s Yearbook of Science and the Future called Shakhashiri
the "reigning dean of lecture demonstrations." Trained as a chemist, Shakhashiri
received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Boston University in 1960
following a few years at the American University in Beirut. By 1968, he had received
both his master’s and doctoral degrees in chemistry from the University of Maryland.
Shakhashiri’s scholarship is well-documented in his classic four-volume series,
Chemical Demonstrations.This collection of dozens of lecture demonstrations, provided
in complete scientific detail and with appropriate safety and usage information,
is widely regarded as the definitive source for such information.
As a teacher and public servant, Shakhashiri has held positions at Bowdoin College,
the University of Maryland, the University of Illinois-Urbana, and the University
of Wisconsin. He also served as the assistant director of the National Science
Foundation’s Directorate for Science and Engineering Education from 1984 to 1990
where he directed the design and administration of a wide variety of programs
to improve all levels of education in mathematics, engineering, and the sciences.
Since his return to the University of Wisconsin in 1990, Shakhashiri has taught
introductory chemistry courses to more than 600 students annually.
As an advocate of science education, Shakhashiri founded the Institute for Chemical
Education in order to bring effective, modern instructional materials and methods to
the broader teaching community. He created the Science is Fun! program to bring
science to K-12 students and teachers and has initiated the Conversations in Science
Series, which connects research scientists at the University of Wisconsin to secondary
education classrooms. Few secondary professional development opportunities have
been as successful.
What Shakhashiri may be most famous for is his annual program, “Once Upon a
Christmas Cheery, in the Lab of Shakhashiri,” seen across the country on television
and in venues like the Smithsonian, the National Academy of Sciences, and the halls of
Congress.These demonstration lectures, modern versions of the celebrated presentations
made by British scientist Michael Faraday, have formed the basis for an interactive
chemistry exhibit seen by many thousands of visitors at the Chicago Museum of
Science and Industry. Professor Shakhashiri has given about 1,000 invited lectures and
presentations throughout the world; he has been featured in magazines and newspapers,
national and local; and he has appeared on television and radio, always
avowing that science is indeed fun!
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