‘Lifelong Learning’ Institute Offers NIH Alums Teaching, Enrichment Opportunities
Dr. Phil Grimley lectured to his largest post-NIH audience mid-year in 2020. That’s when he began teaching an introductory course on viruses for the lay public at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Johns Hopkins University. He’d been enjoying the benefits of Osher before then as a student himself, after entering retirement. When the Covid-19 pandemic ramped up, so did the popularity of his class, which was still being conducted on site at the time.
“It was a way for me to stay abreast of the latest journal articles,” said Grimley, emeritus professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and former NIH investigator in the Laboratory of Pathology at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). “I found it very enjoyable and mentally stimulating, to interact with the students and keep myself up to date on things.”
Osher, an educational program for retired and semi-retired adults, began in 2001 via a grant by the Bernard Osher Foundation to extend the “Senior College” curriculum at the University of Southern Maine. The foundation currently funds 125 lifelong learning programs on university and college campuses across the country, with at least one grantee in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
“Participants in our program learn from the experts and enjoy an array of educational and social opportunities at our various in-person [Maryland] sites in Montgomery County, Columbia and Baltimore or our live online classes via Zoom,” said Susan Howard, Osher JHU program director.
“As an NIH scientist, I was driven to learn about new things,” said former NIH investigator Dr. Peter Lemkin, who retired from NCI in 2007. “In the Osher program, I’ve had the opportunity to learn about many new areas besides science, including economics; politics; history of many parts of the world as well as political movements; music genres such as classical, opera, jazz, musical theater, history of music and Strathmore artists in residence…also, art history, history of film, international relations, law enforcement in Montgomery County, energy and climate change, and much more. There is less pressure as a student in a lifelong learning program because you are there for the joy of learning new things, not taking classes for credit.”
Some Osher teachers are Osher students who were experts and leaders in their fields, coming from organizations in the D.C. Metro area, he explained. Other instructors include JHU staff and local experts with a wide range of experience.
“Osher is not just about the courses,” Lemkin said. “You also have the opportunity to make new friends in and out of classes, at lunch and at some of their special events.”
Dr. Bruce Shapiro, who retired in 2021 and is currently a scientist emeritus in NCI’s RNA Biology Laboratory, recently teamed up with one of his Osher instructors from last year. They submitted a proposal to teach a joint Osher course next spring.
“I firmly endorse the idea of Osher as a way to learn new things, including those that were out of my field of view and to fill in gaps of things that I was familiar with,” Shapiro said. “It is a way to keep your mind sharp and to provoke interesting discussions on a wide variety of subjects.”
To learn more about Osher JHU, which will offer a wide range of courses both in person and online this fall, visit http://tiny.cc/lqoavz.