By Myles Deno, staff writer
With a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, and a Ph.D. in Cell Biology and Biomedical science from Hawaii State University, chemistry teacher Mr. Matsumoto loves anything related to science, whether it’s learning new things in the lab, or sharing his passion for chemistry with his students.
Mr. Matsumoto found that he liked teaching while getting his Ph.D., when he had to teach other graduate and medical students, helping students with their labs and also helping them solve homework problems.
But initially, Mr. Matsumoto wasn’t interested in using his passion for science for teaching. His passion was to research in a lab, which he discovered during his days as an undergraduate, studying chemistry in his lab classes. He found that working in a lab was fun; so he decided to work towards a Ph D. Mr. Matsumoto’s main motivation was to discover something that no one else had found before.
In regards to his passion for researching Mr. Matsumoto had this to say, “You can think of research as doing something ‘new’. That means something someone else hasn’t done. So that seemed fun, enjoyable, a challenge.”
Though Mr. Matsumoto ended up teaching chemistry, he was initially more interested in biology, working in a lab at UCSF, researching to find a treatment for a genetic disease. However, Mr. Matsumoto left UCSF due to the lab he was working at running out of grants. Mr. Matsumoto decided he didn’t want to look for another research job because he wanted a job that was more “permanent”.
This led Mr. Matsumoto “back” to teaching, becoming a high school Integrated Science teacher in Pacifica, but wasn’t there long as he transitioned over to Galileo as a Chemistry teacher, and has continued at the school for the last 20 years.
