Making the World Saif

Microbiologist Linda Marsch Saif ’69 is tackling world health, one virus at a time

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Passion for science

Saif did her own senior I.S. in biology at the OARDC on parainfluenza virus in lambs and calves. This hands-on research excited her. "When I got into the laboratory and saw how to study infectious diseases and the viruses that cause them, that’s when I really got interested in microbiology. Later, when I got the job at the OARDC, I found it almost inconceivable that someone would pay me to do what I like to do.

"Science is exciting because you’re always pursuing something new and different. You’re generating new knowledge, contributing to the overall knowledge pool." In the midst of the sometimes tedious routine, new angles, new issues pop up. "You solve one problem, and a dozen others come to mind. There are always new aspects to work on."

Saif grew up on a "hobby farm" with horses, pigs, poultry, cattle – "a few of everything," in Gahanna, Ohio, then a rural suburb of Columbus. She also spent time on her grandparents’ farm in southern Ohio. After graduating from Wooster, Saif completed course work for a master’s in microbiology at Case Western Reserve University, doing basic research in immunology, before transferring to Ohio State. There she earned a master’s and a Ph.D., studying the viruses that became her specialty.

The University of Ghent in Belgium awards Saif an honorary degree, along with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and four others.

Saif never feared science. And she never let gender barriers stand in her way. She bristles at the very idea. "No one ever said to me, you can’t do this because you’re a girl." But she admits to having few female peers. She credits the space race of the late 1950s and 1960s with encouraging her generation to study science. Sadly, that interest is waning.

"We need more highly trained, skilled people to confront emerging diseases as well as existing ones and develop new understandings, new vaccines, new diagnostics," she says. "I’m sorry to see the best and brightest forsaking science for law or business." Saif is married to Mo Saif, head of the Food Animal Health Research Program at the OARDC. Their son, a Harvard graduate, is pursuing a career in law, not science like his parents.

Looking to the future

Saif worries about a contemporary backlash against science. Though safe, effective vaccines exist, some parents refuse to vaccinate their children, for instance, opening up the possibility of an epidemic of diseases such as measles. "Some people drink unpasteurized milk, even though we know that infectious pathogens in the milk can cause disease," she notes. Saif sees general science education as one solution. "People don’t need to fear science."

Saif also worries about the long-range effects of new regulations for foreign-born students and researchers who want to come to study or do research in the United States. International students have made major contributions to American research efforts, she says, pointing out that a high percentage of U.S. Nobel prizewinners and a quarter of the National Academy of Sciences members are foreign-born. "We’ve competed effectively for some of the best students from all over the world. Education was a major export. Now, with all of our immigration restrictions, the best and brightest minds will just go elsewhere, to Asia, Europe, or Great Britain."

Science "provides a univeral language that can overcome political differences," Saif maintains. She’s seen Israeli and Egyptian researchers lose their hostility toward each other while working together, for example. Cross-cultural exchange is especially important in a place like Wooster. "If you reach out and establish collaborations with scientists from around the country and the world, you don’t have to…go to Yale or Harvard to do great science."

Saif fears the effects of science falling into the wrong hands, such as terrorists resurrecting such devastating diseases as smallpox. On the positive side, perhaps the nasty viruses she studies could benefit society. Researchers might use bioengineered viruses to replace defective cells or destroy tumor cells, for instance.

Another problem, another possibility, another reason for Linda Saif to go to the lab every day. "If you really look forward to and enjoy your work," she says, "it will show in your accomplishments. Just do the best job you can, and let the future take care of itself."

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