Meet Phil Carl - by Beth Timson
November 2016
Interviewing Phil Carl for an OLLI volunteer profile had to wait until he finished up performing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” for an enthralled child—but engaging performances and a fascination with objects in nature are typical of his wide-ranging interests. Phil came to this area from the Midwest; he was born and grew up in Ohio. He attended Harvard where he majored in physics, then went to graduate school at Berkeley. While at Berkeley he applied and was admitted to the Yale School of Drama to study playwriting, but in the end decided to stay at Berkeley. Phil admits to being torn his whole life between a career in science and a yen to be a playwright. He seems to speak with equal fondness from his time at Berkeley of the “bacterial mutants” that formed the basis of his thesis and the song he composed, “My Love Doth Walk the Picket Line” which was recorded by the Limeliters.
In 1968, he left the US for a stint at Kings College in England to work on DNA and biophysics, then returned for a post at the University of Illinois. While at Illinois his interests shifted into trying to develop drugs for targeted chemotherapy. His work on “links” for delivering cancer drugs to targeted sites became the basis for several pharmaceutical developments.
Phil moved to UNC in 1980 to work in the pharmacology department. He also joined the Program in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (PMBB) where he taught workshops to introduce doctors and scientists from various disciplines to molecular biology. He also developed a course to help graduate students think about the complex issues that are involved in developing new drugs, and helped administer summer programs for undergraduates in science fields. Phil notes with pride the discoveries some of those students made in subsequent years. In 1998, he became acting head of the PMBB.
He retired in 2005—but, of course, he didn’t really quit working. That was the same year he published a paper on “disordered proteins” and auto-immune disease, a new direction for his research that he continues to pursue.
In 2007, Phil was brought into OLLI by Ed Gross, then head of the science curriculum, to develop a class with him on “science by Nobel Laureates” to be taught at Carol Woods. It wasn’t long before he was running the science/technology committee and looking for six to nine classes a term that would be as exciting and interesting to the OLLI community as those subjects are to him. “It turned out to be a bigger job than I expected,” he laughed. But he always loved science education, even dreaming of founding a “Museum of Mathematics” to lure in those people who believed they disliked the subject (and he notes that such a museum actually does exist now, in NYC).
But Phil is equally delighted by the musical comedy “Reunion” that he and two old friends wrote in 2001 and performed at his 40th Harvard reunion. “We always hoped someone else would be interested in producing the show,” he says, “but we’re still waiting…”“
Phil says that his main job, as the volunteer head of the OLLI science curriculum is “to make sure that my teachers are happy.” His goal is that everything an instructor needs for a class is available, including “filling the class with intelligent people who want to learn.” So he sees as part of his job the promotion of classes as well as the location of good instructors; two of his recent OLLI innovations are the “Hidden Gems” notes on Spotlight to advertise new or unknown courses and the “Test Drive” course proposals to let instructors try out an idea for audience response before investing in a full course development.
Phil also works on the Instructor Relations committee and has been a part of developing real-time feedback for instructors to help them make their courses more successful. And he has taught several courses himself: “The Rise of the Biotechnology Revolution” and “How Can They Charge $100 for One Lousy Pill?” as well as “Life in the Universe.” He’s working on another new class now on Nobel Prize winners and losers and the nature of science. As he says himself, if you want to volunteer for OLLI, “you’re needed.”
Interviewing Phil Carl for an OLLI volunteer profile had to wait until he finished up performing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” for an enthralled child—but engaging performances and a fascination with objects in nature are typical of his wide-ranging interests. Phil came to this area from the Midwest; he was born and grew up in Ohio. He attended Harvard where he majored in physics, then went to graduate school at Berkeley. While at Berkeley he applied and was admitted to the Yale School of Drama to study playwriting, but in the end decided to stay at Berkeley. Phil admits to being torn his whole life between a career in science and a yen to be a playwright. He seems to speak with equal fondness from his time at Berkeley of the “bacterial mutants” that formed the basis of his thesis and the song he composed, “My Love Doth Walk the Picket Line” which was recorded by the Limeliters.
In 1968, he left the US for a stint at Kings College in England to work on DNA and biophysics, then returned for a post at the University of Illinois. While at Illinois his interests shifted into trying to develop drugs for targeted chemotherapy. His work on “links” for delivering cancer drugs to targeted sites became the basis for several pharmaceutical developments.
Phil moved to UNC in 1980 to work in the pharmacology department. He also joined the Program in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (PMBB) where he taught workshops to introduce doctors and scientists from various disciplines to molecular biology. He also developed a course to help graduate students think about the complex issues that are involved in developing new drugs, and helped administer summer programs for undergraduates in science fields. Phil notes with pride the discoveries some of those students made in subsequent years. In 1998, he became acting head of the PMBB.
He retired in 2005—but, of course, he didn’t really quit working. That was the same year he published a paper on “disordered proteins” and auto-immune disease, a new direction for his research that he continues to pursue.
In 2007, Phil was brought into OLLI by Ed Gross, then head of the science curriculum, to develop a class with him on “science by Nobel Laureates” to be taught at Carol Woods. It wasn’t long before he was running the science/technology committee and looking for six to nine classes a term that would be as exciting and interesting to the OLLI community as those subjects are to him. “It turned out to be a bigger job than I expected,” he laughed. But he always loved science education, even dreaming of founding a “Museum of Mathematics” to lure in those people who believed they disliked the subject (and he notes that such a museum actually does exist now, in NYC).
But Phil is equally delighted by the musical comedy “Reunion” that he and two old friends wrote in 2001 and performed at his 40th Harvard reunion. “We always hoped someone else would be interested in producing the show,” he says, “but we’re still waiting…”“
Phil says that his main job, as the volunteer head of the OLLI science curriculum is “to make sure that my teachers are happy.” His goal is that everything an instructor needs for a class is available, including “filling the class with intelligent people who want to learn.” So he sees as part of his job the promotion of classes as well as the location of good instructors; two of his recent OLLI innovations are the “Hidden Gems” notes on Spotlight to advertise new or unknown courses and the “Test Drive” course proposals to let instructors try out an idea for audience response before investing in a full course development.
Phil also works on the Instructor Relations committee and has been a part of developing real-time feedback for instructors to help them make their courses more successful. And he has taught several courses himself: “The Rise of the Biotechnology Revolution” and “How Can They Charge $100 for One Lousy Pill?” as well as “Life in the Universe.” He’s working on another new class now on Nobel Prize winners and losers and the nature of science. As he says himself, if you want to volunteer for OLLI, “you’re needed.”
If you would like to hear award-winning song-writer, Phil, just click HERE.