Who is James Norton?
Teacher and Dinosaur Researcher
James M. Norton was born in Bangor, Maine, right after the end of World
War II, making him one of the advance waves of the “baby boom” generation.
He is the second of five children. His family relocated to South Portland,
ME, while he was still an infant, and he has maintained his residence
there ever since, except for the years spent in college and graduate
school.
Jim has always been interested in living things and spent many hours as a
child exploring the woods, streams, and ponds near his home and adopted a
variety of animals as pets – birds with broken wings, abandoned baby
squirrels, frogs, turtles, and even snakes. A favorite hobby of his as a
child was drawing animals, and many of his early drawings of birds hang in
his office today. He also made a number of carvings and woodcuts of birds,
deer, and whales.
Finding Out Medical School Isn’t for Him
Although Jim knew he wanted to become a physician, and would therefore
have to acquire a solid background in the life sciences, he also loved the
study of languages. He was able to combine the two by choosing a college
(the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA) where he could major in
Classical Languages and Philosophy but also complete a pre-medical minor
that gave him the minimum courses necessary to qualify for medical school
admission. He’s never regretted this decision, which has given him the
combined perspectives of liberal arts, humanities, and science that have
brought him to his current position as a Professor of Physiology.
After graduating from Holy Cross in 1967, Jim enrolled in Dartmouth
Medical School in Lebanon, NH, where he had his first introduction to
physiology. The subject so fascinated him that, after his second year of
medical school, he elected to spend a year in the Physiology Department
doing research in the area of the control of coronary vascular muscle
tone.
After participating in this pre-doctoral fellowship year, he
transferred to Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, to begin his clinical
training. It was early in this third year of medical school that Jim’s
career goal changed from becoming a physician who heals bodies to becoming
a physiologist who studies how bodies work. He withdrew from medical
school and eventually ended up back at Dartmouth studying physiology
within the graduate program in the medical school’s Department of
Physiology. He received his Ph.D. in physiology in 1979.
Finding a Job
After finishing his graduate work at Dartmouth, Dr. Norton returned to
Maine for a postdoctoral position in the Research Department of the Maine
Medical Center in Portland, focusing on cardiovascular research. It was
while he was there that he first learned of the University of New
England’s College of Osteopathic Medicine (UNECOM), which had been founded
in 1978 in nearby Biddeford. He visited the campus, met with the faculty
and the students, and immediately applied for a position there, not really
knowing whether he had the skills or aptitude to take on the relatively
heavy teaching load. He was offered a position, and he began at UNECOM as
an Assistant Professor in August of 1980. The rest is history, as they
say.
At UNECOM, Dr. Norton is now a tenured Professor and was the Chair of the
Department of Physiology and Pharmacology from 1986-2002. His work is a
combination of teaching (still a relatively heavy load), university
service, and research. The department supplies physiology instruction to
osteopathic medical students training to be family practice physicians or
medical specialists, and to Master’s-level students in the physician
assistant and nurse anesthesia programs. Dr. Norton provides primarily the
cardiovascular and respiratory physiology teaching to these three
programs.
His university service is currently focused on curricular and faculty
development, in which he’s attempting to translate advances in the
theoretical knowledge of how humans learn into practical applications
within medical education. His goal is to convince his fellow faculty
members that, every time they walk into a classroom or a small discussion
group, they should provide something that the students cannot get from
books – a novel framework for organizing information, a new perspective,
or an example of “expert” thinking or problem-solving.
Dinosaur Research
His current research projects are twofold. He continues to investigate
how to improve medical education in general and physiology instruction in
particular. In addition, he does research on a very interesting and
unusual topic – reconstructing the breathing apparatus of a particular
class of dinosaurs called theropods (think Velociraptor from Jurassic
Park!). This combines a childhood interest of his (what kid isn’t
interested in dinosaurs!) with comparative physiology, respiratory
mechanics, and computer modeling.
He has given several presentations at national paleontological meetings
and is currently preparing several manuscripts for possible publication in
this area.
The work involves visiting museums, photographing and measuring
dinosaur ribs and vertebrae, and creating a working virtual model of the
dinosaur backbone and rib cage. The work will hopefully shed some light on
whether these very interesting creatures were truly warm-blooded, with
activity levels and behaviors similar to those of modern predators, such
as wolves or lions.
Outside of Work
When he’s not teaching or doing research, Dr. Norton reads, goes to
movies, enjoys the Maine coast, watches one son play in his band and the
other son pitch for his college, and makes ship models. His current
modeling project is a 1/24 scale reconstruction of the launch of the
H.M.S. Bounty, complete with figures of Lt. Bligh and the 18 other loyal
crew members who were set adrift with him, built entirely from “scratch.”
Other recent models include a reconstruction of an Irish ocean-going
curragh (a leather-covered boat), which he had originally built for his
late father but which now sits in his office. His next project will be a
model of the “James Caird,” the small boat used by Ernest Shackleton and
five others to cross 800 miles of treacherous South Atlantic seas to reach
civilization at South Georgia Island, which will again have miniature
crewmembers.
Dr. Norton is active as a volunteer as well. Most of his volunteer work
has revolved around the local Affiliate of the American Heart Association.
He has been a long-time member of the Affiliate Research Committee and
served as its Chair for a number of years, until the Maine Affiliate
merged with the other Northern New England states. While his sons were
attending the local public schools, he was always involved with
parent-teacher groups, building committees, and sports booster clubs.
He is also the assistant curator of the Dinosaur Discovery Center,
begun by his brother who shares his interest in dinosaurs. They visit
elementary school classrooms and bring with them durable casts of dinosaur
bones, teeth, skulls, and eggs to generate interest in biology,
physiology, evolution, and ecology. On the drawing board are teaching
packages that conform to the State of Maine K-12 Learning Outcomes for use
by elementary school teachers around the state. They are considering an
application to the NSF to fund the development of these learning modules.
Advice to Graduate Students
In addition to your area of special interest, make sure to take
graduate courses in a variety of physiology topics. This will provide a
broader education in physiology that may give you unexpected insights into
your primary area of study and, if your eventual position involves
teaching, a broader physiology background will allow you to contribute
more meaningfully to your institution’s educational program(s).
Recent Publications
Norton, J.M. A comparison of methods for identifying troublesome
examination questions.
Adv.
Physiol. Educ. 16(1):S55-S60, 1996.Norton, J.M. A visual model for teaching ventilation-perfusion
relationships.
Adv. Physiol. Educ. 24(1):38-42, 2000.
Norton, J.M. Toward consistent definitions for preload and afterload.
Adv.
Physiol. Educ. 25:53-61, 2001.
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