Sporting Prada shoes and sharing a dance floor with Will.i.am, are probably not what University students expect of their medical professors, or perhaps any professors. But Dr. Steven T. DeKosky is full of surprises.
Vice president and dean of the University's Medical School, DeKosky was one of 11 nationally-recognized scientists to appear in the June issue of GQ magazine beside musical superstars Will.i.am, Joe Perry, Sheryl Crow, Seal and Josh Groban. Intended to promote awareness of scientific research, the GQ photo shoot represented the launch of its new campaign "Rock Stars of Science," carried out in partnership with the Geoffrey Beene Gives Back association, a philanthropic organization that supports medical, societal and educational issues.
Initiatives such as "Rock Stars of Science" are intended to accelerate scientific research and attract new audiences to scientific causes, especially young people. DeKosky, an expert in Alzheimer's disease research, hoped the photo spread would achieve the campaign's goals of encouraging additional funding for medical research and creating a more public friendly scientific image for the field.
"Meryl Comer [director of the Geoffry Beene Gives Back association] had the idea to match rock stars with scientists," DeKosky said.
According to a recent survey commissioned by the national organization Research!America, almost 75 percent of those polled could not name one living scientist.
"A scientific literate society is in the position to make well-informed decisions," DeKosky said. "The problem is not that the public is disinterested in scientific research." Rather, the recognition gap is more a product of poor scientific literacy rates in today's society, he said.
Even more upsetting for DeKoksy were the results of a recent Harris Interactive survey by Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. The survey found that the antics of Britney Spears were more influential than Stephen Hawking among most Americans.
"The country celebrates rock stars," DeKosky said. "It's a part of a cultural appreciation for stuff that makes life better which is great. Yet, just as Jefferson said, education is what makes a well-run society."
The public's perception and knowledge of the scientific world are crucial to gaining support for research, he said.
The "brief glimpses" of the scientific world that the public is exposed to are either in movies, in which researchers are portrayed as nerds or in newspapers that tend to feature stories on scientific research gone awry, DeKosky said. The media perpetuates misconceptions about what researchers really do and "keeps people from making decisions about research," DeKosky added.
"A fundamental understanding of the basic principles of research is necessary in order for people to understand how science contributes to life and how it works," DeKosky said.
DeKosky has worked in medical research for decades and helped develop the first non-invasive procedure to monitor the brains of Alzheimer's patients.
"I was first interested in the relationship between the brain and behavior - thinking and actions - so I started out doing research on Alzheimer's because when I started, it was a disease that we knew very little of," he said.
His laboratory was the first to show the connection between the nerve cell contacts and cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's patients. To continue such research, DeKosky and his colleagues require increased public interest and support.
DeKosky admitted that his daughters were somewhere between "disbelief and laughter" when told that their father would be posing in GQ wearing expensive men's wear with some of America's biggest rock stars. While DeKosky said he has taken "a lot of static from friends," he noted that "humor originates from in-congruency."
The experience was "just like a movie with loud music, dancing and a photographer that told us to 'loosen up and move it,'" he said.
The best part of the shoot, DeKosky said, was hanging out with some of his closest friends and getting to know Will.i.am.
"He was great and I think he had as much fun as we did," he said.
Still, he foresees no more celebrity photo shoots in his future. Next on his to-do-list is to "become a reasonably wise and considerate dean [at the Medical School]," he said.
"I have been here for a year, transitioning from doing all research to guiding the medical school," DeKosky said. "I would like to put the same value from my career into the [medical] students"
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