I chose to create this website as a consequence of recurring conversations I have had with colleagues the past few years. I began my career at California (then State College) University in 1969 and have now taught during five decades. Most of my colleagues who began with me are now retired, a future event in my life, I anticipate with some trepidation. To a person, each of these now-retired colleagues lamented about all the "stuff" they knew and how it would be wasted when they retired. In my case, the answer would be to either provide my family and friends with twenty minute lectures to questions easily answered with a terse yes or no, or design this website, providing information to students world-wide; information that would otherwise eventually be deleted from my neural hard-drive.
I am from Allentown, Pennsylvania and graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Muhlenberg College in 1965. I continued my education at the University of South Carolina where I had the opportunity to be advised by Felix H. Lauter, who obtained his Ph. D. at Louisiana State University and worked under the tutelage of the legendary parasitologist, Asa Chandler. I obtained my Master of Science in 1967 and Ph. D. in 1971 there, working with the miracidium of Megalodiscus temperatus, a rectal fluke of frogs. I once joked back then with a friend that my research was 30 years ahead of its time, drawing guffaws. It turns out that was an understatement, in that my research was so obscure that the scientific community still hasn't paid attention to it.
In addition to Parasitology, I also teach Human Physiology and the Biology of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. The STD course is taught to non-majors and could easily be named Everything You Didn't Want to Know about Sex (apologies to Woody Allen) but I'm sure the university administration would demand a committee appearance to explain my rationale for such a re-naming.
I have advised more than 20 graduate students, working on studies of parasitic protozoan ultrastructure, anesthesia parameters, and ultrastructural effects of anabolic steroids. Most of these advisees have attained the Ph. D. or advanced medical degrees. I was self-trained as an electron microscopist in the late 1960s and a colleague and I were awarded a Pennsylvania Distinguished Teaching Chair in 1979 for an EM techniques course we designed and taught during the 1970s. I have presented or published more than 30 scientific articles. In 1979, I co-authored a chapter in the Chemical Rubber Company Handbook of Microbiology on the ultrastructure of fungi.
I have three children and a creative wife who is a self-trained gourmet cook and interior designer. My children are all graduates of California University of Pennsylvania. Chelsea lives in Cannes, France with her French husband where she is an event planner/abstract editor/science associate with the European Society of Cardiology. Her job takes her to the capitals of Europe and the US, planning future congresses which she later attends as a science associate. She and her husband Yannick have one child. Her email address is: chelseathomas15@hotmail.com Meghan lives in the DC area with her husband who works for Xerox. She is the mother of our two grandchildren. She was the Outstanding Woman Graduate of CUP in 1999 as a biology major. She has put her professional career on hold while being a mom but is an artist and designs and draws Pennsylvania German frakturs. She has drawn the schematics for the life cycles on this webpage. Her email address is meghanpetrucci@hotmail.com Colin works as an outside sales representative for EU Services, a large printing company in Rockville, Maryland. EU is one of the largest printers in the DC area and generates close to 47 million in annual revenue He has a bachelor's degree in Graphics Communication from CUP. His email address is buckelew@euservices.com
My wife and I have restored a 25 room Georgian revival house and maintain an antique shop, dealing in 18th and 19th century American furniture and accessories, as well as English china from 1750-1850. I present at about six antique shows a year and actively sell antique and rare books on Ebay. I also make hardwood reproductions of period American furniture.
In designing this website, I have tried to embody it with a sample of my fun-loving personality, coupled with a disciplined approach to academics. My attitude with higher education is to convince students that learning should not be approached as a chore but welcomed not only as an avenue to a better life but as an enjoyable experience. I encourage camaraderie amongst the students yet friendly rivalry. Asa Chandler once stated in his Introduction to Parasitology, published in 1930, that "parasitology touches upon or overlaps so many other sciences that a parasitologist probably has to stick his nose into more different fields of knowledge than any other kind of biologist A parasitologist, like an orchid, requires long and careful nurturing, and develops slowly. But when he/she comes to flower he/she is a rare and beautiful object, scientifically speaking, and is usually slow in going to seed".
ADDENDUM
As planned, on May 26, 2007, I will be officially retired. That doesn't mean that I won't be keeping up on advances in biology. It only means that I won't be paid to do so. It has been a wonderful career and I enjoyed every minute. I'll miss the faculty and staff and the camaraderie we shared. Most of all, I'll miss the students who have kept me young all these years. I'd enjoy hearing from you. My email address at home is tom.buckelew1@verizon.net
I hope you all have or will enjoy successful careers and lives.