I was lucky enough to interview Waterloo Alum and now instructor, Dr. Rick Marta for this week’s profile. As many Science students know, he’s an amazing Chemistry instructor, and I’m sure many of us have relied on his lecture videos when we were cramming for a midterm. I was able to ask him some questions about his life and his experiences here, and he gave us some advice too. Read on to learn more about this charismatic instructor.
1. What does your academic career look like?
I did my Bachelors of Science in Regular Honours Chemistry here at Waterloo, from 2000 to 2004. I started when I was 20. Back then I took OAC and I also took a year off to work to both make money and to just relax a bit before I started University, something I took very seriously and knew I would. I worked very hard very quickly, I didn’t goof around in first year… since I was older I felt I had already gotten it out of my system. By goofing around I mean staying up too late, not doing homework, partying with friends and stuff like that. I actually technically, started in Honours Science and I switched into Honours Chemistry in 1A. I was uncertain with what I liked; I liked chemistry, physics, and math a lot. I actually applied to Honours Math here as well, was accepted, but decided to take the Honours Science path instead. I was careful to choose my courses so that it was heavily weighted to Honours Chemistry anyways, and I took the higher level physics, so if I wanted to switch to physics it would have been pretty easy.
I knew by the end of my Honours Chemistry degree that I would want to do a PhD in Chemistry, and I knew pretty early that I would want to stick to academia. I wasn’t good at presenting then, I was too scared, but what gave me a lot of my confidence just enjoying teaching was through working in retail. I worked at Aquarium Services, they sell aquatic animals. I worked there for over a decade. There I learned how to talk to people and train them on how to properly manage an aquarium. This gave me a chance to teach, train and interact with small groups of people. I loved teaching so I thought I could do this early on.
A lot of the inspiration for my PhD came from doing an NSERC, the Natural Science Engineering Research Council of Canada. I did three NSERC USRA’s, Undergraduate Student Research Awards, starting in second year. I learned about the program through Carey Bissonnette, a Chemistry instructor here. You can hold three in your Undergraduate Career. It allows you to work for the summer and you work doing research here at the University and you get paid for it. It’s also a scholarship and it looks wonderful on your resume. This gave me a professor to work with, Terry McMahon, whom I worked with all 3 years, who basically forced me to do a presentation, in second year, in front of approximately 70 experts in the field. Terry trained me how to give a talk. Before this, my last talk was in grade 12 English. I got really anxious and I had to sit down, it was mortifying. I find this interesting though, because it shows how much someone can change. The real big change for me was from Terry forcing me to do this talk. With his training, I was able to enjoy doing a presentation, and ever since I have been able to be a good speaker. I intend to be confident and believable. After these 3 years, I wanted to keep going and I did my Ph.D. with Terry, and this took 5 years. I immediately started my Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from my undergrad, from 2004 to 2009. This is the exact amount of time to do a Ph.D. in Waterloo. A physical chemist is on the borderline of physics and chemistry, but still a chemist, so there is more math involved. This incorporates thermochemistry, quantum mechanics, and statistical thermodynamics, which connects the two, and then molecular spectroscopy. It’s mathematical but it is tangible enough that there are real experiments, which is the real beauty of it. To my understanding, I was the first person ever in the Faculty of Science to create the idea of starting a Ph.D. without starting a Masters first. The only benefit is one less graduate lecture course than someone that transfers from their Masters to Ph.D.
2. Why did you want to teach and study chemistry?
I liked it a lot, and I did well at it when I worked hard. It required hard work to do well, but I wasn’t shy about the hard work. By this, I mean sacrificing life, people, family, things you would like to do but that you need to put on hold sometimes, but if I did this, I could do well, which I found rewarding and that is what drove me to go through chemistry. It also had quite a bit of math in it, and since I applied to math I do enjoy it.
The teaching part comes partially from my retail job, I took it very seriously and I was very passionate about it. I was there to speak honestly, help people and make them happy by giving them good information. I also predicted what they were going to do wrong before they did it, something I take pride in as being a chemistry instructor who cares about his students doing well. I got a lot of satisfaction from interacting with people, it’s part of my personality, I am an extrovert. I get a real natural high from just helping people and seeing the light go off. It is rewarding as a teacher and was rewarding working at the fish store. I thought that now that I’m getting a chemistry degree, and then apply the part that I love to it, and I hoped to get my foot in the door into this world. I knew what I wanted through my senior undergrad and my Ph.D. I devoted a lot of effort into tutoring and teaching. I was given opportunities to be a CHEM 120 and 123 TA running tutorials, which are lecture based. Also, I was the first chemistry TA that began the exam help sessions in residence for CHEM 120 and 123, in the mid to late 2000s. It was just me and one other guy that would do everything. We only had one weekly session, with maybe an extra before the final, but it was nothing compared to what it is now. Doing that all the time exposed me to teaching roles more than my colleagues. I was seeking it out and I was at the forefront of a lot of things, which has no comparison. I also did as much private tutoring on the side that I could handle because I enjoyed it. I tutored for CHEM 120, 123, 266, 264, 265 and the labs for all of them. Most of it was word of mouth. I did all this as well as worked retail on the weekends. I was always involved in engaging people.
3. What does your research focus on?
One thing I like to clear up: I am not a professor because I don’t run a research group, I have a Ph.D. I work with professors in the Chemistry department that I have relationships with from being here a long time and from friends. One is are Terry McMahon. He still runs a research group, it’s smaller now, and he hires young students. He doesn’t have the capacity anymore for a large group, and they have to try to get research funding which is difficult for everybody these days. He is near the end of his research career, but since I am the most educated person here in his stuff, whenever he needs help, I jump on ship and do it voluntarily and for fun. So what we do together, and have done since 2008 or 2009 is go to France every single summer. I’ve done it eleven times. There we use an FEL, free electron laser, there are only two in the world that do what we want it to do, the other is in the Netherlands. The one in France is in Orsay, on the outside of Paris. We go for a week to two weeks. The laser is very powerful and infrared, which means it is invisible to the human eye. It excites the vibrations in molecules, the vibrational modes, and what we can use it for is to pick different wavelengths in the infrared spectrum. If you pick the right wavelengths, using the rules of quantum mechanics, you can excite the vibrations in molecules based on the types of atoms connected. If you pick the wavelength that nothing happens, then nothing happens and the light goes right through the molecule like it’s not there. If you select a wavelength that matches the frequency of the molecule, it will cause the molecule to blow up. So what? We do this to the molecule, more specifically the ion, while it’s trapped inside a mass spectrometer. The ion floats in a magnetic field in a vacuum. If it explodes into pieces, the machine is very sensitive and can see that, and when that happens we see the blowing up into pieces as a little peak in a spectrum. A spectrum is a graph with peaks and valleys, to us every time there is a peak we can say that there is that type of vibration there, so I know how to atoms are connected, don’t I? So what I try to do there is say what I think this ion looks like, with a really high degree of certainty. This spectrum, these peaks and falls, is called the fingerprint spectrum. No one has done these before, we only look at species that have never been looked at by any human being before in existence, so that’s kind of neat. Trust me, it’s not as hard as you think, we just try to think of funky ways that no one else has before of how molecules come together, and we do. When I look at the spectrum, to me it has information about what the structure of the molecule looks like after I make it. And then I back this up with very high-level calculations which I can use to simulate the spectrum, which is done with supercomputers here on campus. Here it is called SHARCNET, and they theoretically produce the spectrum. If this theoretical and the actual spectrum match really well, then I can say with a pretty high degree of accuracy what that molecule looks like. I would try to publish that, other experts in the world may try to argue with that, and if the concerns are addressed well then you get a publication. So I’m still publishing a lot of papers, most of them working with Terry McMahon and Scott Hopkins. Scott is approximately my age and we get along well, we’re friends, he is trying to get tenure and he is a relatively new professor whereas Terry is an established professor near the end of his career. They come out to France. I help edit any of their papers as well, so I am always one of the authors on those papers. I do this all voluntarily, though.
My actual job requires me to do the labs, teach first year, or whatever I’m asked to do. It is 100% teaching for the university, no research necessary. I do that all for the honour and for the enjoyment of it. I like being to get first year students interested in my work as well when it’s relevant. It’s nice to be able to connect my students to my peers as well.
So in a nutshell I figure out what molecules “look like”. On paper I am a laboratory instructor, I prefer to call myself a chemistry instructor, since a part of my contract is to teach, usually first year, chemistry courses.
The research part, I choose to do, think of it as a really geeky hobby, and I’m really proud of my geeky hobby.
4. What do you like to do in your spare time?
I’m not going to lie that when I like to relax, I like to not engage people. I like not to be one dimensional, so besides chemistry I also play high-level volleyball. I’m not tall but I can jump high. I love it and I train so I can perform at that level. I play in an A division indoor league and in the summer I play outdoors. I play at least once a week.
I also play squash. I used to play on the school varsity team. I usually play with the same partner, who I met here in grad school. We play at least once a week and have played together for ten years. I also lift weights so I’m not weak playing the sports that I enjoy, because if not, you won’t be good enough to compete at that level. I just like the stress relief from exercising, whatever it might be. Weight-lifting with just your music early in the morning is good, and I’m sure any student can appreciate the stress relief that can bring. I started that pretty religiously in second year when I was quite consumed with anxiety and stress. This is what got me into the mindset that I have to do this throughout the year or else I will be quite anxious intrinsically. That is how I relieve my stress, I believe in it and it keeps me grounded. I have a stressful job, and I enjoy the responsibility, but if I wasn’t doing these things it would be hard to feel mentally well. I can see in students if they’re suffering, and that makes me sad, and I’m very open about talking about myself so they don’t feel like they are the only one. I offer any solutions since everyone needs different levels of support, I am mindful of others around me, I have empathy for them, so I stress for them and I will proactively ask, “Are you okay?” at the risk that I might not want to hear the answer or that they might not want to answer.
The other stuff is hanging out with my wife, two cats and a fish tank. My cats are really relaxing, I love my cats. I’m not a cat person, I love animals. My wife is a veterinarian, so I love spending time with her. Our cats are really cuddly and they make you feel appreciated. So with relaxing, I love to be with my wife and do a Netflix rampage just like anybody, with the rare time we have together. Right now we live in Toronto, and I commute, and have since April. I do this because she works at an emergency clinic in downtown Toronto and she wants to become a neurosurgeon. Right now she is doing a year of interning and then she will have to do a residency, and a lot of people wouldn’t be able to handle the demands it puts on her. Her record now is 43 days straight, and her average shift is sixteen to nineteen hours. It almost sounds inhuman, and it is. But she does it and she does it with pride. When we see each other its very precious time. But we are both very dedicated to our careers, and we knew that before we got married, and we just support each other’s dreams all the time, and I do not take that for granted. She’s my best friend, and she will always support me no matter how I act or what I do. She’s awesome that way. She’s a gamer too, which is cool…We have some good gaming sessions together and I would argue that she’s naturally a better gamer than me, which is crazy since I’m no joke either. We have a lot in common with how we like to relax. We both like a lot of the same music, we like to go out and just check out new things, and if something looks cool or different we go and check it out, especially living in Toronto, that’s sweet and besides the commute it is a lot of fun to be there. Without kids, and with cats we can just go and do stuff. The only thing that holds us back is if we’re both home. These days, I don’t take anything for granted, I love having all of these things. These are my day to day things that I need to have to feel complete.
Dr. Marta and Dr. Ingram
5. What’s been your favourite teaching moment?
There’s been a couple over the years. I’ve had some students, even though it’s a lot more work for me and the student, that are just trying to pass, but they really are trying to go through all the motions but they’re just not getting things. Maybe they missed a chemistry in high school, especially in first year. So to have a student that is a regular and comes from the beginning and feels hopeless, which I see, well my first goal is to talk to them to bring them up out of that hole with optimism. Not optimism that is fantasy rainbow land optimism, but real optimism that what they’re thinking isn’t the end of the world since they came to talk to me early in the term and we start working on some strategies. I say let’s do baby steps, get you to pass and if we can do better than that then keep going. Just to help them getting out of that original hole, of despair and hopelessness, and for me to give them hope and actually believe me, and then work with them and see the improvement…that never ever gets old. What never gets old to me is helping a new student. It’s still all up to them to use the strategies and to believe in the things I’m saying to give them hope, it wouldn’t work if they didn’t believe. I’m very careful to not tell people what to do but I give them my opinion and that they can do well if they change their path. And when people let me know that they’ve rocked it or send me an email during the Christmas break for example, saying I wouldn’t have passed the course without you, that always gets to me in a good way. It never gets old, it never will and it really hits my heart. The new faces in front of me and the new people I meet are what gets me excited, and you can never change that. I’ll never forget those experiences.
The content that I teach doesn’t change much and common question I get asked is if I get tired of teaching that stuff. No I don’t, and I can always work on better ways to deliver it to my students and the only way I know that is because of my students. I try to take pride in paying attention to my student’s needs and how they react to the things I’m delivering to them.
I also don’t mind the extra work it takes to actually interact with someone on a personal level if it means it can help their performance. Not everyone wants to do that and it isn’t in my job description. My job description is pretty dry and there isn’t a lot about the people element there, but I feel that if you want to consider yourself a “good teacher”, then you need to take risks and not be afraid to be slightly emotionally connected to your students. I take that risk because I want to, and a lot of it isn’t chemistry problems, it’s getting their emotional state to where we can talk to them. I’m there to listen if they need to get something off their chest, and if they just need someone to hear them then I’m good at that and I can direct them to the right place if it’s more serious, and then we can talk about chemistry after. I am also willing to give my own personal mistakes or the fact that I am human and that I am weakened by certain things that can be tough to control. I do love the connection I can make. The best students are the ones I’ve helped achieve a goal that they didn’t think was possible and they let me know that they did.
6. What were you involved with during your time here at the University as a student?
In the first few years of my undergrad I was pretty boring, and I wish I wasn’t. I was too serious with my studies, meaning I wasn’t balancing well, and quite frankly I believe that a good chunk of that lead to my almost debilitating anxiety. I was having panic attacks even when I wasn’t writing tests, just waking between classes. I would feel like I was going to pass out or that I was having a heart attack. So a lot of the reason why I started exercising, was when I was feeling rough in second year, it is what my doctor suggested. He didn’t mean lifting weights, but something that exhausted me. So I got into squash in second and third year. Then with other chemistry students from 2004 and on, I started playing dodge ball, big time. We had our own team, our own jerseys and we ended up being one of the top co-ed intermural teams. We were called the Chemikazies, we had a logo too which was Albert Einstein’s head superimposed using Photoshop onto Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body, firing dodge balls from a machine gun. I made it actually. We had a t-shirt company make it with fake nicknames and numbers. We did that weekly for years and I also played on the squash team. After that second year, which was my worst year for physical and mental well being, I got more involved. I also did yoga with a roommate, and I did the power yoga where you have to be in kind of good shape, and it was tough but rewarding. In doge ball I would take a lot of combat roles and sacrifice my body.
I wasn’t in any clubs though.
In third and fourth year, I learned how to balance better, and I did go out at night more. I would just sleep very little, but I did have a good time and I would never skip class. I went to Phil’s, everybody goes to Phil’s. My favourite night was the Sunday retro night, and it was always a good crowd on Sunday nights.
7. How has the university changed from your time as an undergrad to being an instructor?
Opportunities for support. We have all these extra groups now such as the Science Student Help Team, free tutoring sessions, LEARN, and emailing your professor. Even in 2009, it was odd to email your professor. Instead, we showed up at office hours. I think to about all the extra handouts we can put on Learn. Back in the day, we only had the textbook. Now we can easily give you resources. I love technology. We can communicate where support is and we can give you resources. It makes life easier for students. It’s amazing to see those changes. I care about the ease of giving support and extra information, and I can contact all of you at once. I’m happy now that you guys have this. Even as someone who uses supercomputers here on campus. The ones I was using in 2002 would take calculations that would take three or four weeks, that I can now do on my desktop in two hours.
Waterloo has really pushed on its instructors to use Learn and I myself record my own lectures. It wouldn’t be like that if I was teaching before 2009. A lot of the keen teachers use technology to reach out to their students. If I was to consider anyone to be my teaching mentor I would say it’s Carey Bissonnette, he is a recipient of the highest distinguished teaching award campus-wide and he cares more about teaching and doing a good job for the students more than anybody I’ve ever met. He’s been doing the same job for 20 years and he hasn’t let it taint him or give him a pessimistic attitude. He is one of the most caring and thoughtful persons I’ve ever met. He always has the most articulate and sympathetic way of responding to emails and can say no without it being devastating. I had him for first and fourth year, and I’ve worked with him closely. I want to learn and emulate from the best, and that won’t hurt you. The things I’m the most thoughtful about when teaching, I owe it all to Carey.
8. What advice would you give your first-year undergraduate self?
I would say, Rick, balance, man.
Start running around the block or doing something fun because you’re going to get burned out in second year. I was able to fix it with support; I went to my doctor because I was feeling ill from the anxiety. It was hard for me to go to the doctor. I wish I learned what I learned after suffering so much, a bit sooner. I wish I could tell myself the secrets which were exercise, balance and having a good small group of really good friends around me. If you go and do sports you end up meeting people too which is fun.
Thank you so much Dr. Rick Marta for your time!