PSU Magazine Fall 2013

then began teaching part time at PSU, while conducting research that earned her national attention. She is respected for her work in evolutionary biology and marine mammalogy. She specializes in the study of evolution, popu lation structure , and genetic variability of whale and dolphin species using DNA analysis. She also is on call for a team that rescues stranded marine mammal . "Perhaps because I am a geneticist I am in the habit of seeing males and females as performing different roles and am interested in how the pattern– ing fits the role," says Duffield. mong the current generation of graduate students, Duffield sees considerably more male and female camaraderie than when she was a student. "On the other hand," she comments, "what I loved about the '60s was the collective liberalizing energy that overcame individual fears about talking and acting together." Duffield mourns the loss of that radical energy from ociety today. Duffield's students consider her a dynamic and imaginative teacher. She asks her upper division and graduate students to construct a timeline of 3.5 billion years of evolution. "I want them to see the pattern and where and when things fit." Once a student pieced together a quilt in response to the assignment. "I really like the inge– nuity of responses, the collection of ideas of how people see." Jeanette Palmiter, professor of mathematical sciences, is a member of the new generation of women scien– tists-those who earned a degree between 1970 and 1990, when the number of women science students was on a steady rise. In the Univer– sity's early days, women faculty were often limited to teaching the basic introductory science and mathematics courses. Palmiter and her colleagues also expect to teach upper division and graduate courses, mentor master's and doctoral students, and apply for and receive grants in their research specialties. Specializing in mathematics educa– tion, Palmiter came to the Portland 8 PSU MAGAZINE FALL 2001 State in 1990, having earned a B.S. from Ohio State University in 1977, a master's from University of Illinois, and a Ph.D. in 1986 back at Ohio State. One of her children was born while she was working on her master's, the other toward the end of writing her dissertation. She taught for several years at Kenyon College in Ohio before coming to Portland State. Her hu band teaches computer science at Lewis & Clark College. "We knew we wanted to be at sepa– rate schools so we were not viewed as a couple," Palmiter says, "and we wanted to work in schools where liberal arts are valued." A child of Methodist missionaries, Palmiter spent her early years "edu– cated in the European manner" at a school for missionary and diplomatic children in Bolivia. Her father taught mathematics and physics. Palmiter first learned to read and write in Spanish. When the family returned to the United States, she felt isolated in an English-speaking con– text and found solace in mathematics. As an obviously bright student she was placed in an independent study group, where, she says, "we spent most of our time on the lookout for teachers while playing Jeopardy and other games." Palmiter believes that the competitive strategizing and problem solving bene– fited everyone: two of the study group members became five-time winners on the real Jeopardy game show. almiter teaches her PSU students with an emphasis on meaning, interpretation, and applica– tion. She considers computation devices, such as computers and calcu– lators, as liberating the study of mathe– matics from "symbol manipulation" and calculation to understanding and meaning. "Students now get to ask, what is a derivative and why might I ever need one?" The Mathematics Department has offered a Ph.D. in mathematics educa– tion since the 1997-98 academic year, and approximately 50 percent of its majors plan to be teachers. Palmiter has received National Science Foun– dation money to expose teachers dur– ing summer workshops to new teaching methods for math. She is a strong believer that by staying in the Jeanette Palmiter