The Biology department at John Brown University recently welcomed Assistant Professor Dr. Baronger Beiger. Beiger originally hails from Texas but has spent his last few years studying in Arkansas, first at Ouachita Baptist University and then the University of Arkansas for graduate school.
Beiger’s fascination with science, especially microbiology, started from a young age.
“When I was a kid, I did enjoy using microscopes as much as I had them. I had this little portable one from the discovery channel that was probably 10x magnification tops, and I would just go sit on the stairs at my house and look at the carpet fibers underneath there,” Beiger said.
In undergrad though, Beiger did not originally start out as a biology major, but instead began his career as an English student.
“My interest in science really was established in undergrad at OBU where I met enthusiastic scientists who didn't seem like they were just in it for the money. Then those enthusiastic students, those biology majors, wooed me not from my English major, but towards the sciences as well,” Beiger said.
After undergrad, Beiger spent some time working as a construction mentor in Wisconsin at HoneyRock, Wheaton’s outdoor center for leadership development. Following that, Beiger attended U of A looking to earn his Ph.D. in microbiology.
His interest in microbiology started when he would work with his father who would go to government, commercial and residential buildings to look for mold and help people clean it up. Beiger wanted to help these people too, not just to have cleaner homes, but also to help them figure out the medical implications of the mold.
“As I went to people's houses and saw the mold and told them how to take care of it, I met a lot of people who were sick from the mold and a lot of people didn’t know how to deal with that,” Beiger said. “A lot of people, and even doctors, didn't know how to approach what was wrong with the people, and there was a lot of desperation with people that I was seeing and trying to help but I didn't have the medical knowledge to help them. So I was like ‘I'm going to go to grad school to learn how to help these people.’”
While Beiger was able to have many different interesting research experiences both in undergrad and graduate school, his end goal, after graduating from OBU, was always to become a teacher.
“The research was a fun side track that is helpful for me to teach people because I can now speak about research and how it's done,” Beiger said. “I learned a lot in my experience in grad school that can help me mentor students through the graduate process.”
Beiger has already started investing in students at JBU and is working to find out how to help them best.
“I’ve noticed that Dr. Beiger is very curious about things that we’re interested in and he’s really trying to get to know us and what we do and don't like when it comes to classes and teaching. He's really good about incorporating student feedback into what he does,” Natalie Vaughn, an evolution and ecology student, said.
It was, however, a long road for Beiger to arrive to where he is now. When he first started at OBU, Beiger said he wanted to go live by himself in the woods and didn’t believe in God at all. However, through his experiences at OBU, he was able to turn himself around with the help of those around him.
“The professors there poured into my life so much that it was like a literal 180 that happened in my life. Being introduced to C.S. Lewis by my literature professors allowed me to see a thoughtful Christianity and also being introduced to the sciences by my biology professors, it was such a mind opening and heart opening experience to be there with those professors and in that really studious and curious environment,” Beiger said.
After graduating from OBU, Beiger said he has been able to continue to see Christ working in the natural world.
“Of course studying God’s creation allows us to understand more about him, and I think that it has done that for me a good bit,” Beiger said. “I feel that most strongly in regards to my popular physics that I investigate. I don't have any physics knowledge nor much mathematics under my belt, and so reading books that help distill things like quantum mechanics down for me is something that really makes me in awe of the universe.”
All of Beiger’s previous experiences have helped him to better engage with his students, and it is clear to them that he’s meant to be here.
“I think he’s a great addition to the science department,” Vaughn said.