Chancellor Steinmetz Teaches Students in Infant Brain Development Class

John Douglas Gearhart

Seated are students (L to R) Kendale Nichols, Chassidy Hurst, Heather Bradshaw and Devon Taylor with associate professor of human development and family sciences Glenda Revelle (back left) and Chancellor Joseph E. Steinmetz.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – University of Arkansas Chancellor Joseph E. Steinmetz recently taught a class on infant brain mechanisms being offered through the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences.

Steinmetz accepted an invitation to give a guest lecture to the 20 students in associate professor Glenda Revelle's senior-level course, Infancy: Brain, Learning and Social Cognition, which is being taught for the first time in the School of Human Environmental Sciences' human development and family sciences program.

Steinmetz engaged students in the topic of memory systems in the brain, drawing on his 30 years of experience as a research leader studying brain systems that support learning and memory. 

"It was a unique experience," said Hannah Turner, a senior in human development and family sciences. "Not many students at a university this large have the chance to be taught by the chancellor."

The course explores how brain mechanisms operate in interaction with experiences to provide the basis for social learning and social cognition. It looks into what abilities and behaviors the brains of babies are "hard-wired" with at birth and how life experiences impact brain development from that point forward.

"The students and I were thrilled to have the opportunity to learn from Dr. Steinmetz about brain bases for learning and memory," said Revelle. "It is not often that undergraduates have the chance to learn from a National Academy of Sciences Research Award winner."

Steinmetz began his tenure as U of A chancellor on Jan. 1. He was the executive vice president and provost at Ohio State University, where he had also served as vice provost and executive dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Prior to going to OSU, he was dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas, where he was also a distinguished professor. Before Kansas, he was chair of the Department of Psychology at Indiana University, where he was distinguished professor of psychological and brain sciences.

"It was definitely a boost to our understanding of how the brain works," said Grace Frank, also a senior. "I think he had fun, too."

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.