For Bob Dylan, Hibbing was “a little town on the way to nowhere.” For Eric Fort, a PhD candidate in Chemistry at Boston College, it is the source of his values and a center of constant support.

     Seven years after leaving his small hometown in Northern Minnesota to pursue his education, he still feels strongly connected to the town. The values instilled in him while growing up in Hibbing have traveled 1,700 miles and have continued to inspire him to share his expanding knowledge with others.

     “As a child I was always curious about everything,” Fort recalled. “I was that kid who was continuously asking why.”

      To fulfill some of this curiosity, he joined Boy Scouts. It allowed him to follow his variety of interests by earning badges. It was also a means through which he could positively impact his community.

      As a Bluejacket at Hibbing High School, his curiosity and compassion continued. As a member of a number of academic and social groups he filled his time with challenges.

“High school was a testing ground for my limits of involvement,” he mused. “In high school you have the free time — you don’t have to pay rent or tuition.”

     His first move from Hibbing was to St. Paul and the College of St. Thomas where he earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry. He did not leave his old interests at home. He led a troop of Boy Scouts and became involved with the college’s Chemistry Club.

     Fort noticed, like most other freshman students, that college was a completely different mentality than high school. He realized that this was a challenge for both the students and the professors. As a member of the Science Olympaid team in high school Fort learned that many high school teachers struggled with planning curriculum that would effectively prepare students for college chemistry. The professors at St. Thomas were complaining of a similar problem because their students weren’t ready for introductory chemistry.

      Bridging the gap between these two worlds, Fort and the Chemistry Club organized a conference during his junior year for high school chemistry teachers and college professors. At the conference both groups worked together to come up with a solution for the knowledge deficit. 

     Fort was pleased with the results of the conference, which St. Thomas has continued. In November 2006 he published an article about the conference in Chemistry Today magazine.

     “You can have such a broad impact with one idea—accomplish a lot of goals at once,” he said.

     As a student at St. Thomas, Fort also did a summer internship at 3M. He worked with other chemists researching a number of different products. Looking back he realizes that he learned about the process of research.

      “I started at 3M as a data-collecting robot,” he said with a laugh. “But by the end I felt like I was owning my own information.”

      This transition didn’t only happen in the work place, but was also a transition that took place in his mind during his undergraduate career, ultimately leading him to graduate school. His life, again, was influenced by Hibbing.

     “My education in high school was a solid foundation that brought me to college and set me off on the right foot,” he recalls. “After that I had to take it upon myself.”

     Fort has found a self-guided education even more important now that he is a graduate student at Boston College.

     “You need to know everything you are supposed to know,” he said, “whether someone has told you or not.”

     Teaching has become an important part of his graduate school experience. He has taught organic chemistry labs and discussions, for both sophomore organic chemistry and the chemistry honors program at Boston College. He sees this work as influential in preparing for a future career as a professor (a option he is seriously considering). In 2006, he was a recipient of the Donald J. White Teaching Excellence Award from Boston College. The award is based on the recommendations of faculty and students.  

     His PhD research is concerned with carbon management. For the layman, a long tube is filled with carbon, in which some of the carbon becomes conductive. These carbon molecules can be up to one hundred times more conductive than copper. So, for example, power lines currently made of copper could either be one hundred times more conductive or one hundred times more powerful if made of carbon.

This research will fill the next three to four years of Fort’s PhD work but he’s keeping his ears and eyes open for other research fields. Each morning he wakes up to a list of the most current chemistry articles awaiting him in his e-mail inbox. Each year, jobs in chemistry are becoming more diversified, so he is keeping up with the changing knowledge.

     “Chemistry is a diverse field,” he said. “All of these researchers are adding puzzle pieces. Whatever the field, they are adding bit by bit. And even though you can see the puzzle now, you are making the pieces fit better.”

     And the pieces can come from a variety of academic and commercial profession. Though there are many opportunities for a chemist with a PhD, he is currently passionate about teaching.

      “I don’t know if I had one specific teacher who impacted me,” he says “I had many good ones throughout my life. They all affected me. I hope to some day to return this type of positive influence.”

     Fort says his favorite part of teaching at Boston College is seeing the light in a student’s eyes when a difficult concept finally clicks. The challenge of the field is something that he admits scares many people. Students are often deterred, he thinks, because they believe that chemistry is a science confined to the flat surface of the Periodic Table of Elements.

“Organic chemistry is a spacial science,” he argues. “Many people think that it is something confined to the periodic table; but it is really thinking about chemicals in three dimensions. Intangible molecules are related to so many things.”

     The task of making such abstract principles clear to students will be a challenge but Fort has never been afraid of a challenge that takes him out of the territory he knows. As advice he recites the words of a former undergraduate professor:

     “We live life pursuing a summit, and sometimes it seems like you aren't going anywhere.  But even the next step is progress.  So, often we need to focus on the road right in front of us trusting that it will get us to our goals eventually.” 

     Many steps away from the streets of Hibbing, Fort is walking towards summit still reminded of the influences of his past.

     “The people of Hibbing instill exceptional values,” he says. “It's a small town full of people who care for each other. Over time it has become an anchor, something to fall back on even when you are far away. I feel like I have the support of a whole town even when I am 1,700 miles away.”

     The values of small town Minnesota have traveled well with Fort, who has continued to be willing to use his knowledge and share his inspiration with others. Big things can come from small places.