July 2007
Foster looks forward to his new role at Purdue
Chris Foster received one promise from the Purdue University Board of Trustees before he and his wife, France Córdova, moved from sunny Southern California to central Indiana. And it was a big one."When we interviewed with the trustees they guaranteed that I would not have to shovel the driveway when I got to West Lafayette," Foster says. "That clinched the deal."
France Córdova is the 11th president of Purdue. She and Foster moved into the Purdue President's home, Westwood, with its long circular drive in late summer. The drive has been snow-free - so far. But being a native of the Midwest, Foster is well aware of what Indiana winters can bring.
It has been noted that Córdova is the first female President of Purdue. That makes Foster the first male to serve in his role - first gentlemen, as he describes it. But his responsibilities at Purdue go far beyond ceremonial. In addition to assisting Córdova, at Purdue, Foster is Coordinator of Discovery Park K-12 Science, Technology, Math and Engineering (STEM) Programs.
In this capacity he is helping to lead Purdue's outreach to encourage more students - especially those in Indiana - to study in STEM fields. While science, technology engineering and math will dominate the high tech international marketplace of the 21st century, the United States risks falling behind in these fields as enrollments decline.
Foster is helping students understand that science, technology, engineering and math offer great career opportunities, and they are also lots of fun.
Foster is working out of the Discovery Learning Center where programs are already underway even as the $25 million building is under construction. With its new centers for nanotechnology, biosciences, e-enterprises, entrepreneurship, advanced manufacturing, energy, the environment, oncological sciences, cyber infrastructure and much more, Discovery Park is an ideal place to fire a student's love for learning. And Foster is an ideal person to help lead the effort.
With an outgoing personality and passion for teaching and learning, Foster is person who loves to interact with people. When he talks, you can feel the excitement he has for education - or whatever subject he is discussing.
His background is in physical science and he can speak at length, in detail, about the potential impact of earthquakes at the University of California-Riverside where he and Córdova previously served. Then he can switch in a second and speak in equal detail about the New Madrid Fault and the 1811-1812 earthquakes that shook Midwest states, including Indiana.
Even before he arrived at Purdue, Foster was wearing a Purdue tie and Purdue lapel pin and was excited about the work he would be doing in West Lafayette. He has more than 30 years of experience in education, including more than 20 years teaching at the high school level. His interests extend far beyond academics to a real concern for the students he is teaching.
"When I first became a science teacher, I was interested in teaching my subject matter," Foster says. "And I enjoyed coaching sports. That's sort of what locked me into that career early on. But, I quickly learned that the most important thing you do as a teacher, no matter what level, is working with the people that you have in your classes. And you can't do that unless you really enjoy people. I look for that special something in each person that makes that person different from everyone else. I have really enjoyed my life because I have had the opportunity to work with students."
Foster is an Ohio native who grew up in Cleveland with a great interest in Big Ten intercollegiate athletics. He has a Bachelor of Science in Earth Sciences from Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio and a Master of Science Teaching degree from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. He is a doctoral candidate in science education at Penn State University.
He met Córdova in Los Alamos, New Mexico. A high school science teacher, he worked summers in the Los Alamos National Laboratory as a consultant developing science education programs.
Córdova was also at the Los Alamos Laboratory, first as a Staff Scientist in the Earth and Space Science Division and later as Deputy Group Leader of the Space Astronomy and Astrophysics Group.
They met rock climbing. Foster was a leader of a local rock-climbing group. Córdova had learned to rock climb as an undergraduate student at Stanford University and had climbed all through graduate school at California Institute of Technology.
"I joined the technical climbing club and they had a school every spring in May," Córdova says. "The last school session was called the Graduation Climb. Chris was out there as a leader and we just happened to come into the central camp at exactly the same time. It was the end of the day and he looked at me and said, 'Who are you?' I told him, and he said, 'Well, would you like to go on one more climb?' And I said 'Sure.' So, that's what did it." They've been together ever since.
"Los Alamos was a male-dominated society," Foster says. "If you're a single man and a single woman comes out to go rock climbing, that makes her very interesting. We would just go right up the clean, vertical faces and she enjoyed following me up. When we got to the top and she said, 'Wow that was just terrific. You were just great.' That's all the encouragement a guy needs."
They married at Los Alamos and have two children, Anne, 21, and Stephen, 19. Anne is a senior at U. C. Riverside and Stephen is a sophomore at Stanford University.
In 1989 the family moved to Penn State where Córdova accepted the appointment as Head of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Department. In 1993, she was named the Chief Scientist at NASA and they moved to Washington, D.C.
In Washington D.C., Foster worked for the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA).
"They were looking for somebody with my background in science education because Vice President Gore was rolling out a brand new international Internet-based science education program in environmental science," Foster says. "This was in 1993 when the Internet was still not being used by the schools. Thousands of schools around the United States that had never before used the Internet brought it in as a result of training in this program."
As Deputy Assistant Director for Education, Foster coordinated establishment of the NOAA White House office for what was called The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment - or GLOBE Program. It was an international, Internet-based, environmental science education program for precollege students.
The GLOBE Program continues today with a vision to create: "A worldwide community of students, teachers, scientists, and citizens working together to better understand, sustain, and improve Earth's environment at local, regional, and global scales."
Today the GLOBE network is in 109 countries. It has 135 U.S. Partners. There are more than 40,000 GLOBE-trained teachers representing more than 20,000 schools around the world. GLOBE students have contributed more than 16 million measurements to the GLOBE database for use in inquiry-based science.
When Córdova was named vice chancellor for research at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1996, Foster took a position there. He was named Academic Outreach Coordinator in the College of Letters and Science. In this position he developed and led a college-wide program of educational outreach and managed many other projects including the regional Directorship of the University of California ArtsBridge Program.
Córdova was Chancellor at the University of California Riverside from 2002 until this summer. At U. C. Riverside Foster worked in the Bourns College of Engineering as Director of Undergraduate Research and Student Professional Organizations.
He is excited to be at Purdue.
"There are very few places that would be this interesting for France and me," Foster says. "This is a great opportunity. I am enjoying the opportunity to meet people here and to work in the STEM fields with K-12 education in Indiana. I love cheering for the Boilers. I'm learning new things every day about Purdue and I believe this is a university that has great people, great potential - and a great new President."
To the News Service home page