Pioneer Member

Kathryn Francine Sparace – I enjoyed undergraduate research in Tom Moore’s lab (1976 to 1979- U of Wyoming), and later obtained my master’s degree under him (1981) on phospholipid biosynthesis in castor bean endosperm. I benefitted from his mentoring, friendship and invaluable fatherly advice. I remember my initial naivety and shyness. After being told I had to do a research project for my National Scholar’s Scholarship, I looked up all the science professor’s different areas, their papers, plus papers of my own interest. I met with Tom, my Plant Physiology instructor, in his office saying I wanted to work on laser photo bleaching of cell membrane fluidity in his lab (a very ambitious, virtually impossible project then) which the university would minimally fund. His typical reaction, when not knowing exactly what to say or surprised, was to draw his hand over his mouth, giving him that minute to think. Then he asked gently, “Really- What made you think of that?”. A spur of the moment hour-long talk with him ensued, cementing that interaction. He never laughed nor said out loud how crazy my proposed project was as he guided me into a very plausible, doable project with him on the lipid composition of various membranes. That changed my life totally. I later saw this typified reaction multiple times as he never seemed to get mad or lose control despite so many things trying his patience in lab. I learned so much from him and those in his lab; work ethic, respectful interactions, sense of humor, scientific thinking and lab safety.

He wanted all of us to succeed, guiding our interactions carefully. Background information and scientific papers were shared before and during lab meetings where everyone spoke, if possible. He assigned me to learn under a PhD student various techniques, including culturing tobacco cells, separating castor bean endosperm organelles (99% pure) and isolating and identifying the lipids and fatty acids. That PhD student, Sam, told me the first day all 50 tobacco flasks would have to be re-cultured if I contaminated more than 3. I showed up to re-culture the flasks. Tom’s hand swiping a grin away as he turned to ask Sam what exactly he said, then telling me that several contaminated flasks were normal when learning culturing, explaining further about watching out for the teasing.

Through him I realized the importance of the right next career step. As an undergraduate, he took me to an ASPP/ASPB meeting. I fell in love with research, hypothesis generation and the science talk around the posters. As Sam and I became engaged, Tom called me into his office for a fatherly talk. He spoke of how important it was for me to continue my career, go to California for my PhD, and not let myself get pulled away from my goals all of which I did. Back then, it was difficult for women to finish much less succeed.

Tom looked out for us beyond doing research in his lab, truly concerned for our health and well-being. He went hiking with some, fishing with others, and had “coffee breaks” with many. When I became highly allergic to castor bean, he called from Germany during his sabbatical to stop my work in the lab, saying that I could write up my MS work without further lab work. He later gave me other health related career advice.

I am so grateful for the time spent in his lab and his mentoring. He opened doors for his students, respected them and was respected by them, providing them with opportunity, ideas and support.

Salvatore (Sam) Sparace – I think that Tom’s greatest mentoring role for me was to help me definitively define my long term scientific interests and directions in the area of plant biology. Prior to my arrival at the University of Wyoming, I was pretty naïve about graduate studies and possible careers in plant biology. At that time (1975) I knew that I loved plants, enjoyed the outdoors, and was pretty good in science courses. Thus, it made sense for me to apply to a university with a graduate program in botany, but also one located in a part of the country with the promise of backpacking and other outdoor activities. During my first year at UW, I was asked to narrow down my interests (originally specified as a Master’s in “forest botany”), choose a major professor, and to take a handful of courses to round out my background in plant biology. These courses were General Ecology, Plant Taxonomy, Cell Biology and Tom’s Plant Physiology. I discovered that I loved plant physiology, and out of all my instructors, Tom was the only person to talk with me about my interests and encouraged me to work in his lab. During our discussions, he asked me how serious I was about a career in science, and cautioned me that if I really wanted to succeed in this line of science, I should go straight for a Ph.D. and be prepared to do one or two postdoc’s. With his encouragement, I soon after embarked on my studies of mitochondrial lipid biosynthesis and never looked back. Over the years in Tom’s lab, there were many other benefits such as the development of my attention to experimental detail, scientific writing, and the comradery that everyone in Tom’s lab developed together. This included a week-long 50 mile back backing trip with Tom in the Wind River Range of Wyoming, but especially meeting Kathy Kleppinger, whom I later married. Our years at the University of Wyoming working with Tom are truly some of the best years of our lives that we will always look upon fondly.