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Who is James Norton? Teacher and Dinosaur Researcher
Jim has always been interested in living things and spent many hours as a child exploring the woods, streams, and ponds near his home. He 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. Figuring Out a CareerEven though Jim knew he wanted to become a doctor, which meant he would have to take a lot of courses in the life sciences, he also loved the study of languages. He was able to combine the two by choosing a college (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 courses he needed to apply for medical school admission. He has 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. After graduating 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 decided to spend a year in the Physiology Department doing research in the area of the control of muscle tone in the blood vessels leading to and from the heart. After doing this research for a year, he transferred to Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, to begin his clinical training. During his third year of medical school, Jim changed his career goal from being a doctor who heals bodies to being a scientist who studies how bodies work. He left medical school and eventually returned to Dartmouth where he 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 JobAfter finishing his graduate work, Dr. Norton returned to Maine for additional research training (called a postdoctoral position) in the Research Department of the Maine Medical Center in Portland. There he focused on research involving the heart and blood vessels (the cardiovascular system). 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 teaching a large number of classes. 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 has been Chair of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology since 1986. His work combines teaching (still a lot of classes), service to the university, and research. The department does all the teaching of physiology to osteopathic medical students training to be family practice physicians or specialists, and to Master’s-level students in the physician assistant and nurse anesthesia programs. Dr. Norton teaches the cell, nerve, muscle, cardiovascular, and respiratory physiology classes for these three programs. His service to the university is currently focused on course and faculty development, where he is trying to take advances made in understanding how humans learn and turn them into practical applications in medical education. His goal is to convince his fellow teachers that, every time they walk into a classroom or a small discussion group, they should provide something that the students cannot get from books, such as a new way of putting together information, a new way of thinking about something, or an example of “expert” thinking or problem solving. ScholarshipSome of Dr. Norton’s recent research focused 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 combined 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 has 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. His current research focuses on how to improve medical education in general and physiology instruction in particular, by including more direct medical applications of physiological principles into his classes. For example, along with fellow faculty in the Departments of Anatomy, Biochemistry, and Family Medicine at UNECOM, he developed sample clinical studies or cases that incorporate common principles being taught in the three courses. The introduction of these cases at the beginning of each section of the course, as well as the a discussion of the cases at the end of each section, are taught with faculty from all courses participating. Outside of WorkWhen he’s not teaching or doing research, Dr. Norton has fun reading, going to movies, enjoying the Maine coast, making furniture, and making ship models. His recent modeling projects include 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,” and a reconstruction of an Irish ocean-going curragh (a leather-covered boat) supposedly used by Irish monks to travel to North American in the sixth century. He is currently working on a model of Leonardo Da Vinci’s flying machine. 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 chapter of the American Heart Association. 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 casts of dinosaur bones, teeth, skulls, and eggs to generate interest in biology, physiology, evolution, and ecology. They are hoping to develop teaching packages on dinosaurs that could be used by elementary school teachers around the state. They are thinking about applying for a government grant to pay for the development of these teaching packages. Advice to High School StudentsPhysiology is a very broad, inclusive discipline that includes many different areas of study, from molecules to cells to organisms to the environment. Anyone with an interest in one of the life sciences could become a physiologist. It is a career that allows the greatest flexibility to study what interests you.
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