Might delivers career spotlight lecture

Once a month at Mountain Brook Elementary, students are provided the opportunity to hear from a visiting speaker as part of the Career Spotlight Series. The series, started by MBE’s school counselor Anna Carlisle and supported this year by PTO members Erin Teague, Kaira Catenacci and Hill Weathers, is designed to expose MBE students in fourth to sixth grades to new and interesting careers.

In the past, speakers were typically chosen because they have a connection to MBE. The January speaker, Dr. Matthew Might, was no exception. Indeed, the latest iteration of his storied career is inspired by his son, Bertrand, a sixth-grader at MBE. Carlisle said that Dr. Might’s talk “motivated students to look beyond themselves and think about how they can contribute to others through a career choice.”

Dr. Might joined UAB in 2017 as a professor of both computer science and internal medicine. He came to UAB from the University of Utah, where he was a Presidential Scholar and an associate professor in both computer science and pharmaceutical chemistry, and from Harvard Medical School, where he was a visiting professor of biomedical informatics.

Fourth-grader Callie Bearden enjoyed Dr. Might’s explanation of “what a Ph.D. is and how you can keep learning.” A principal theme of Dr. Might’s research is the use of computer and data science to enhance clinical and academic medicine. In 2015, Dr.Might was asked by the White House to serve as an adviser to the newly launched Precision Medicine Initiative.

Dr. Might’s interest in the intersection of medicine and computer science was inspired by his son and MBE student, Bertrand. In 2012, Bertrand was diagnosed as the first case of NGLY1 deficiency, an ultra-rare genetic disorder. This diagnosis motivated Dr.Might to shift his research towards genetics and drug development, which in turn has led Dr. Might along this personal,meaningful and unprecedented journey—seeking treatment and a cure for this genetic disorder. This journey was outlined in a moving New Yorker article from July 2014 entitled, “One of a Kind.”

MBE students and staff were inspired by Dr. Might’s one-of-a-kind message. Sixth-grader Mac Mandell said he was inspired to see “how much of an impact he can have on other people,” and sixth-grader Ella Trotter loved “how he helped his son, and it inspired me to think of something I can do to help others, too.”

Submitted by Carla Ward.