Harvard chemist returns to Davis High, inspires chemistry students

PHOTO: Dr. Gygi presents to AP Chemistry students.

By Juna Brothers

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Students in Jonathan Langberg’s chemistry classes were greeted by a professional chemist on May 17. Dr. David Gygi, who graduated from Davis High in 2011, returned to DHS hoping to encourage students to consider a career in chemistry. 

“I think it’s a really hard time for science and it’s a time where the voice of good science needs to be really loud,” Gygi said. “When I was in high school, I realized I had no idea what chemistry (really) was.”

With a PhD and MA in chemistry from Harvard University, Gygi enamored Langberg’s students, who peppered him with questions about his journey through academia and into his current work with a biotechnology company in San Francisco. 

In his presentations, Gygi heavily emphasized the importance of collaboration in his success. He had his fair share of struggles and doubts throughout his education, but his robust support system allowed him to persevere. 

“I didn’t get to undergrad just (knowing) how to do science. That’s just not how that works . . . I didn’t go there and just say, ‘All right, let’s do it.’ This is not a Nike ad. I really had a lot of help . . . you’re not going to succeed in a vacuum,” Gygi said. 

This year, all of Langberg’s chemistry classes are either honors- or AP-level. As expected, this is joined by frequent class discussions of college applications and career worries, even in sophomores. 

“They feel like they have to be involved in a bunch of different stuff, even if they don’t really enjoy it,” Langberg said. 

Gygi worked to alleviate some of these students’ anxieties. 

“You do have time. You have more time than you think. I have many colleagues who I work with who took a little bit longer at different stages just to figure out what they wanted to do, and they were better off for it. So please don’t feel this huge rush to just get it done right away,” Gygi said. 

As Gygi has witnessed far too many times in the scientific field, pressure to publish work with “groundbreaking” findings has led many to distort their work. Many papers have data that is falsified or purposefully misinterpreted.

“Science is 99.5 percent failure. I have designed many, many molecules. Many of them fail . . . that’s what you’re signing up for. But it’s okay, it’s part of the job,” Gygi said. “It’s very hard, especially coming out of high school and undergrad, to not tie your self-worth to the success of your science . . . (but) if every experiment you run in grad school, undergrad, whatever, works, (you should) immediately be suspicious.”

After watching Gygi speak to his students, Langberg was confident that many of his students were positively influenced. 

“You could see a normal dude who had struggled and had challenges and it was okay . . . you don’t have to be this brainiac person. You can just be interested and passionate and those qualities are actually really important too,” Langberg said.