Inspiring West Virginians – 2012 Series

Encore presentation of Series 2 airs Thursday, Sept. 20, at 9pm 

Encore presentation of Series 1 airs Thursday, Sept. 27, at 9pm 

In our third series of profiles of West Virginians who have distinguished themselves in the sciences and in business, we meet two people from the Mountain State who as youngsters gazed at the sky and were inspired to be involved in space.  Both succeeded – but in very different fields. 

We visit the lab of one of the world’s leading biochemists who is working at the frontier of cancer and diabetes research.  And we hear from a woman who once worked three jobs to make ends meet, and today is the CEO of one of West Virginia’s most successful businesses, helping many others in the process.

You can hear their stories in an hour-long program on Thursday, September 13th, at 9 pm on West Virginia Public Radio.  Shorter versions of each story will be broadcast during West Virginia Morning beginning Monday, September 10, 2012.

Producer – Jean Snedegar   

Senior Producer for WV Public Broadcasting – Suzanne Higgins 

Made possible by The Myles Family Foundation – “inspiring West Virginians to soar”

Homer Hickam – “Rocket Boy”  

McDowell County native Homer Hickam Jr is best known for his book Rocket Boys, the story of how six teenagers in a 1950s West Virginia coal company town went on to win the National Science Fair in 1960.   One night in October 1957, Hickam’s life changed forever when the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 – the world’s first artificial earth satellite – flew over his hometown of Coalwood.

“I knew at that moment that somehow, some way, I wanted to be involved in this movement into space.” 

And indeed he was.  We join Homer Hickam at the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama and hear how he designed the Underwater Astronaut Trainer there and his work on the Space Lab at the Marshall Space Flight Center next door.  Then, following a very successful career as an aerospace engineer, Hickam launched an even more successful career as a writer.  To date, Hickam has sold more than 2.5 million books.   The story of the Rocket Boys was made into a successful Hollywood film, October Sky, and the stage musical Rocket Boys the Musical. 

Kim Weaver – Astrophysicist and Pioneer in X-ray Astronomy  

When Kim Weaver looked up at the stars from her father’s campground in Monongalia County, she was inspired to find out what was out there.  By her early 20s, this WVU graduate had already discovered a galaxy.  She was also among the first scientists in the world to study Black Holes, using an X-ray telescope built at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.  Her discoveries helped to launch whole new fields of astronomy.  Dr Weaver is the author of The Violent Universe: Joyrides Through the X-Ray Cosmos, which explains more about the universe to a general audience.  And for many years she’s been the public face of NASA at Goddard, appearing in many films and television programs.   We travel with Weaver back to her father’s campground, where she spent her childhood summers working – sweeping floors, riding her bike, and most of all, looking at the night sky.

Lew Cantley – Harvard biochemist and cell biologist  

Back in 1985 Dr Lewis Cantley, a native of Big Chimney in Kanawha County, discovered an enzyme called PI3-Kinase.  At the time his scientific colleagues thought he couldn’t be right.  How could a chemist discover something so fundamental to biology?  

But Cantley was proved right and PI3-Kinase turned out to be revolutionary in cell biology.  It explains cell growth – for example, how a child grows into an adult.  It plays a major role in how the body regulates glucose, central to our understanding of diabetes.  But PI3-Kinase also explains the growth of a variety of cancers, so is central to the development of new drug treatments targeting cancer.

“The Cantley Lab” at Harvard Medical School continues to work at the cutting edge of research into PI3K and its role in diabetes, obesity and cancer.  Cantley’s work on sugar’s link to some cancers was recently featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes.  And many of Cantley’s colleagues say he is a likely future winner of the Nobel Prize. 

Judy Sheppard – Businesswoman and Entrepreneur 

Judy Sheppard is currently West Virginia’s most honored businesswoman and entrepreneur.  In 2011 she was named the state’s Small Business Person of the Year as well as Distinguished West Virginian of the Year.  Sheppard is founder, president and CEO of Professional Services of America, Inc, a multi-million dollar business based in Parkersburg.   With more than 200 employees, PSA, as it’s known, provides services for some of America’s largest corporations – DuPont, GE, Pepsico, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Mylan Pharmaceuticals and others – as well as 32 government agencies.

This Roane and Ritchie County native has come a long way for her success.  Native American on her mother’s side, Judy grew up with what she calls “nothing” – no electricity, no running water, no telephone, no television, no toys.  Every day she walked three miles each way to catch the school bus.   Sheppard is grateful for what she has overcome – we travel with her back to the home place where she lived, way up a hollow.   “I tell people I don’t want to forget – I want to help other people overcome those obstacles.” 

Underwriting provided by the Myles Family Foundation