As a third grader, Richard Hill kept a list of diseases, their symptoms, causes and possible cures, folded neatly in his back pocket. As a University of Idaho graduate student in neuroscience, he hopes to help the scientific and medical community work down a similar list, erasing those diseases affecting the brain.
Hill is particularly focused on helping to find a cure for multiple sclerosis, which has afflicted his sister, Lynn, and an estimated one million others in the U.S. alone.
Hill currently is investigating some of the brain's chemical and electrical processes to gain insights into the disease.
"My research in computational neuroscience is basically writing algorithms that model how the brain works," he explains. Algorithms are succinctly defined mathematical instructions for accomplishing specific tasks, which are implemented by computer code.
"If you set up a model that aids in predicting how the brain works, you can also understand how diseases work," says Hill.
"For almost a decade now, I have watched what MS has done to my sister's central nervous system. As an electrical engineer and professional software developer, I visualize adjustments and enhancements to her biological system that could help with her deficiencies," he says.
Hill works closely with Professor Richard Wells, Director of the Neuroscience Graduate Program. One-on-one contact with professors is an everyday occurrence, and Richard chose the University of Idaho for its attention to students.
At the University of Idaho, "Professors care about students," Richard says. "It's an ideal place."
Talking with Richard Hill
The outgoing President of the Idaho Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, Richard Hill was born in Chicago, raised in Los Angeles, and worked as a senior software developer in Atlanta before coming to Idaho.
RICHARD ON IDAHO’S PEOPLE-FIRST ENVIRONMENT
“Here you don’t really have to schedule an appointment with your adviser. If you have a question, you just drop by and see him. In fact, there’s one professor I stop and talk with every time I run into him and I don’t even have a class with him. I don’t think that’s happening at too many other institutions. They’re just too busy.”
“I don’t see that happening at bigger metro schools. Because I’ve actually talked to other friends at other schools and they all say, ‘How are you pulling this off? Because our school doesn’t give us the kind of financing and attention that your school is giving you.’”
“My sister, for example, got her civil engineering degree at UCLA. I told her about some research I did here with a professor and she was shaking her head before I even finished. She couldn’t believe it. That kind of hands-on experience just isn’t possible at a huge metro-area campus. The faculty and administration are just too busy and the competition is too cutthroat. Because Idaho is so student-oriented you just have all kinds of opportunities you wouldn’t have at bigger schools.
“The Dean of Engineering here is a good example of that. She puts a real emphasis on what students want and need. She’s very concerned with how the students are developing. Maybe some deans at other schools are more interested in how smooth the ship is running and not necessarily how the students are doing. Their focus might be on how many students do we have coming in, how many are graduating — the numbers.
“I’ve gone to a school where you’re literally a number. I still remember that number, too. It was 147315. And they’re so cold about it, too. You ask a question and they want to know your number.”
RICHARD ON THE IMPORTANT THINGS IN LIFE
“I know a professor who went to MIT and told me she doesn’t remember Cambridge. Because she was so busy and had so little money, her life was just basically Cup o' Noodles and lab. When I told her I was kind of thinking about MIT, she said, 'I’ll be honest with you. If I had to do it over, I probably would do something a little different.' She never really found a niche or a group of people to hang out with. To hear her tell it, it was just a long tenure of drudgery.
“It’s sad if your memory of a place is only you, your backpack and class. That’s such a huge chunk of your life that’s missing.
“There are lots of forms of wealth. The time you spend taking walks together, helping each other out — that’s a form of wealth, too. And stories — the times when you sit around together and talk about the trip we took together and the things we did. And maybe some things that we probably shouldn’t let outside the group!”
“You want to be able to sit back and remember something ten years from now and say, ‘Oh, yeah, I forgot about such and such happening.’ Something triggers a memory and suddenly you start laughing about something that took place and the personalities you met on campus. Idaho is a small community, but the assortment of people you meet here from all kinds of places is pretty amazing.”
HOW HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE LEADS TO REAL-WORLD SUCCESS
“My first semester here, because of my course-load and what I was learning, some people I ran into in the field thought I was already in my second year. So yes, it’s a great program academic-wise. It’s a lot of work, too.
“A University of Idaho Computer Science professor, James Foster, is the reason I’m here. I met him at a Genetic Algorithms Conference in Washington, D.C. He was such a dynamic speaker. I was like, ‘Wow!’ So afterwards I went to talk to him, but about 15 people wanted to talk to him, too. So I called him the next day. He told me about the program and said I should come check it out. So that’s why I came. Because at different tracks, different seminars at that particular conference they were referencing him by name. So I was thinking this individual is pretty respected.
“Even though I specialize in Computation, our Neuroscience program requires that you also study Neurobiology and Cognitive Neuroscience. A lot of programs out there would have you concentrating only on Neurobiology, but the fact that I have to take courses in all three enables me to engage in all the various conversations that take place at conferences.”
ON THE ADVANTAGES OF HAVING WSU SO NEARBY
“When I heard how close Washington State was I started checking out their programs and thinking, ‘Ok, that’s cool. It’s not so small or isolated.
“And they do get some venues there that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to get. Even though I didn’t go to the concert, people I told about it — my mother and sister — were floored when I told them Elton John was performing here. I didn’t see Elton but I went to the Commons concert because a friend had a ticket. When I mentioned that, my friends back home said, ‘Okay, we need to come check you out then.’”
“Same thing with the lecturers that come to Washington State and U of I. My friends at other places started thinking, ‘Why would they come there?’ And then they start to realize there’s a lot more happening here than they thought. They started thinking, ‘If lecturers of that stature can make their way out there, then there must be something going on there.'”