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Faculty Profile
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Q:
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Which professor has spent his lifetime figuring out DNA?
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A:
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Dr. Charles Vigue, professor of biology.
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A Life of Teaching,
And Chasing the Secrets of DNA
Of all the states in the nation, Charles Vigue has a particular fondness for Maine. His fondness stems partly from his childhood there, and partly because Maine is where he discovered his life’s calling, biology.
It was at the University of Maine, in a massive lecture hall crammed with 500 or so other students, that a professor mesmerized students with a description of DNA.
“I realized at the time that if you knew everything there was to know about DNA, you would know about the meaning of life,” Dr. Vigue says. “I’ve spent a lifetime fooling with DNA. This is the most exciting field that anyone could possibly be in, and it goes way back to the day, sitting in an introductory biology class in 1964.”
Jobs for new graduates who majored in biology were slim back then, so he went for his master’s degree. Jobs for master’s degree graduates who majored in biology were still slim, so he went for his Ph.D.
He outlasted the job downturn, and landed at Johns Hopkins University, where he researched biochemical genetics. But he found research routine. Soon, he discovered a love of teaching through courses he taught at the evening school of Johns Hopkins and at a community college in Baltimore. Wanting to teach full time, he left Johns Hopkins for St. Joseph’s College in West Hartford. But he and the Sisters of Mercy differed in their philosophies, and he left for UNH in 1979.
But his glee upon arriving at the University was tempered by the difficult reality of introductory biology labs every afternoon.
“Luckily for me, the people who were running the department saw some potential and allowed me to teach upper-level courses,” he says, “so I was teaching a lot of biology majors at the time, and I loved that.”
Past department chair and past chairman of the Faculty Senate, he has watched as the University has changed in myriad ways.
“I really like it here, and have liked it here for a long time,” he says. “I’ve seen the University grow and become much better academically. The students I have now are the best students I’ve taught anywhere. And I am spending more and more time at it, and enjoying it more than ever.”
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