Dr. Evelyn Sherr, Dr. Barry Sherr, Professors of Biological Oceanography, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon.

When not working, Ev and Barry like to hike and backpack. They enjoy reading. Because they are interested in how the world works, they enjoy reading about astronomy, evolution, and geology. They like to listen to jazz and classical music. Ev also likes to cook.

Why are you scientists?
We’ve both been interested in science from childhood. We’ve always been interested in how things worked. (Barry got into trouble because he would take apart things like his parents’ binoculars or their record player to see how they worked) As children, we both lived near the ocean (Barry used to go snorkeling off Far Rockaway, New York, and Ev lived near Daytona Beach, Florida), so we were interested in ocean sciences. Barry read books by Jacques Cousteau, and Ev got kits called "Threads of Science". Every month she would get a new science kit in the mail, and she’d do the experiments.

What is science?
Science is a way of knowing about the world. Science is a process, not a body of facts. By the scientific process, one makes predictions about the world and what to expect in the future. The predictions are based on results of experiments and observations. A knowledgeable scientist elsewhere needs to be able to repeat the results in order for them to be accepted as valid. You can’t speak with authority about science without having something to back up what you say.

What skills and qualities are necessary in order to be a scientist?
You need curiosity and a great deal of training and education. It is important to have good communication skills. You need to be able to translate the results of your work into written and oral form.

Scientists are conservative and daring at the same time. They are conservative because they are slow to accept the results of research. These results have to be verified by other labs. It often takes years for new ideas to be accepted. Scientists are also daring because they have to be open to new ways of thinking. They think "outside the box" as they investigate how nature works.

What is most enjoyable about your job?
We’re our own boss. We’re managing a lab and we’re able to do what we want to do. We’re never bored — there’s always a challenge. We have freedom of thought and action. We especially like oceanography. It is a field science, as opposed to a lab science. It is very enjoyable to go out in the field and out to sea to do research. Also, we really enjoy knowing other scientists. They have a joy of life. They work really hard and play hard, too. In general, scientists are interesting people, who have learned a lot and who are interesting to be around.

It is also enjoyable to be working as a team. As a married couple, our colleague is there all the time. We’re not working alone. We can bounce ideas off each other.

What frustrations do you face with your job?
It is frustrating to find the money to fund our research. Most of our grants come from the National Science Foundation. Also, we don’t always have enough time to sit down with the data and analyze it the way we would like to. It seems like we always have to go on to some other thing. We often find ourselves working many more hours a week than we are paid for.

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