COSI’s new head aims to demystify science
Frederic Bertley wasn’t looking to leave his sciencecenter executive position at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, but moving to Columbus to lead COSI was too big an opportunity to pass up. “If you work in a science museum, you know COSI. It’s a top-10 science museum in the country,” Bertley said.
Having taken over in January as president and CEO, Bertley said the job and city have more than met his high expectations, and he plans to create a science festival in Columbus similar to one he helped found in Philadelphia.
Q: What kind of science festival would you create in Columbus?
A: We are in schools, we are in pubs, we are in restaurants, we are in clubs, we are in YMCAs, we are in churches, you name it. All these things are happening throughout the week, and then the capstone experience is a science carnival. … Imagine having 200 tents, all curated by different (companies), anybody that has anything related to science, technology, engineering and math, doing stuff. … It’s exciting because it helps demystify science.
Q: When did education become part of who you are?
A: I was actually an educator first. My parents are educators. … They spent a lot of time in the educational landscape, and so I grew up always around academics, going to universities, going to middle schools, going to elementary schools, going to high schools. So I started tutoring at a very young age. Math came really easy to me, and so I started tutoring other kids in math. And when my parents launched a kind of school academic program, I started officially tutoring through them, and then while going through undergrad and in grad school, I taught either at a middle school or a high school, different things. After that, I taught undergraduate-level courses. I taught community college.
Q: How did your career path bring you here?
A: I didn’t wake up thinking I was going to work in a science museum. Frankly, I didn’t wake up as a kid thinking I’m going to be doing research at Harvard Medical School. … (but) a science background can open the universe to you. And that, I think, is so important. … The training … from that wanting to be logical, wanting to search for truth, wanting to know how to research and get answers. That’s a great skill set, period, whether you’re an accountant, whether you’re in fashion and you want to figure out what’s the best fabric that I need to change the world of fashion; whether you’re into music, and you want to think about how can I be a gamechanger in music? Just being analytical is a great skill set and resource.
Q: What are your other passions?
A: All music, actually. … The thing I love about music is, no matter where you go on the planet, people have a music that resonates with them. It’s one of those weird things that you can be in Australia and you can be in China, it’s one of those universal languages. I’m very curious about that, because there are not a lot of things that are like that. It’s hard to find somebody who doesn’t like any type of music. So music, fashion, sports and science and education.
Q: How do you balance your passions?
A: As you navigate and get older, you have more responsibilities, either professional or family or what have you, you have to balance where you can put your time. With that said, the reason I like to talk about my diverse interests, when I’m trying to motivate the next generation of scientists, it’s important that boys and girls … understand they don’t have to give up other aspects of what makes them them. If you’re a boy and you love playing the guitar or the piano, but you want to be a scientist, you can do both. … If you’re a girl and you’re into fashion and you’re into modeling, great, but imagine if you’re a runway model but you have a Ph.D. in chemistry, how cool would that be?