Richard Sinclair: From sedating seals to instructing gifted students

	Richard Sinclair has the opportunity to work every day with some of UNT's brightest students — those enrolled in the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science.

On the desolate, cold continent of Antarctica 30 years ago, Richard Sinclair, then in his late 20s, was on a medical journey wrestling 1,300-pound seals.

Even though Sinclair, who today is dean of the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science and associate professor of biological sciences, is a self-professed non-adventurer, it is his underlying ability in the sciences that has led him to an array of adventures — the most extreme being in the Antarctic. As a graduate student at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center with an expertise in anesthesiology, he was helping conduct anatomy studies involving the massive mammals.

During his one-month stint in the 1970s, Sinclair sedated the seals, hopping on their backs in the process and placing himself in danger of being swept into the freezing water with them should they break the ice.

"I got to be a pretty fair seal wrangler," says Sinclair. "But I'm not a person who seeks out danger; it was out of character for me."

Sinclair says his lifeline in the seclusion of the Antarctic was operating his amateur radio to talk to people from all over the world. This was a favorite pastime he had begun at age 16 while attending Georgia Military Academy. He is still an avid fan of chatting on the airwaves and acts as adviser to the student radio club at TAMS.

After graduating from the military academy and Oklahoma City University, where he received a bachelor's degree in biology, Sinclair enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps for two years. However, he soon was drawn back to a college environment.

"The day I got out [of the Marines], I swore to myself I would get back on a campus and never leave, so that's what I did," he says.

Sinclair returned to Oklahoma and earned a doctoral degree in medical physiology and biophysics from the University of Oklahoma. He has since built his career on college campuses.

After teaching for several years at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (now part of the UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth) and accepting the role of admissions director, Sinclair was offered the dean position at TAMS in 1992, only four years after the academy's inception.

Sinclair spends his work days teaching biology courses to gifted students in TAMS, advising, writing letters of recommendation and, of course, steering efforts to improve the academy.

"I have the best students anywhere," Sinclair says. "It's ideal; they are bright, accomplished and do such incredible things. I enjoy coming to work every day."

Katie McQuade, a second-year TAMS student who took one of Sinclair's biology courses, says his level of interaction with students is pleasantly surprising.

"He eats lunch at Bruce Hall at 11:45 a.m. every day and talks with students," says McQuade. "He's really outgoing and always willing to help."

Away from work, Sinclair escapes in World War II history and other military books, but he says the closest he gets to adventure these days is watching movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

BY ELIZABETH DEL TORO paiswri1@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue:

• New campaign promotes UNT license plates and scholarships
• Women at work: Habitat for Humanity calls for Women Build volunteers
• Rafes named senior vice president for administration
• Equity, diversity conference registration deadline nearing
• Pohl addresses golf course development issue
• UNT offers support system to employ people with disabilities
• Rafes speaks to Staff Council about salaries, staffing levels, legislative session
• UNT to sponsor Leadership Texas participant
• Gu creates new installation during residency
• UNT scholars win four Rotary scholarships

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