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Well, Dr. Bradshaw, now that we've talked a bit about your early years and your time as a missionary and as a mission president,

I'd love to turn our discussion a bit to your time as a professor at BYU.

I can't imagine feeling more fondly about my experiences at BYU in terms of how rigorous I felt like the academics were,

the quality of the professors that I had, and specifically my experiences in the Honors Program taking honors religion classes from you,

and my honors cloak-wing classes with Ted Lyon, who I've interviewed for this podcast and others.

So, I want to touch on that a bit before we talk about some other things, but before that, maybe share some stories or reflections on going back from your mission to teach at BYU and what it was like leading up to those Holland and then Haven Years.

Biology at BYU, as you know, is housed in the WITSO building, and my tenure at BYU coincides with that building.

So, my first year here in 1970 was the year that that building was open for business, and a new building has been approved and WITSO building is coming down in a year or so.

That's the one with the pendulum in it.

No, that's the eye-ring science for physical science and chemistry and geology, biological related disciplines are in the WITSO building.

So, when I first came, I joined the Zoology Department. Before that, it had been Entomology and Zoology.

And when I told a friend that I was coming to BYU, he said, well, you know, the biologists at BYU all count insects, legs, and they're all looking to find something more than six, but they've never succeeded.

A sort of sarcastic commentary on classical bi-descriptive biology, cataloging of the things that the living things of the world.

So, my training is in biochemistry. I taught the first cell biology course, biology at the level of cells and molecules that had been taught at the university.

Our college has gone through reinvention and reorganization, and I ended as a member of the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology.

Well, I have found students at BYU to be, in general, dedicated, interested, competent students.

I would say that they share with students throughout the country the sort of unfortunate background of being a custom almost entirely to an academic program of memorize

do well on multiple choice sorts of examinations and the life span of the half-life of that kind of education isn't very great.

And that's an oversimplification, and there are very important exceptions to it.

But from the beginning, I have been interested in how one might improve the ability of students to think analytically, to problem-solve, and to practice science intellectually as well as introduce the practice of science in the laboratory to the extent that that's possible.

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