Bert Tanner: A Non-Traditional Scientist Who Modeled Confronting Uncertainty.

We scientists and engineers tend to take a certain perspective on our work. As researchers, we tend to view the world as being governed by physical laws, and it is our job to partition this viewable world into an array of consistencies or rules that permit us to understand and manipulate it for the perceived benefit of humankind. The most important quality we look for in colleagues is integrity, because that is the only way we can trust what they do; knowing full well that everything we do is built on what others have done. Individual integrity is the corner stone of science, because it is the only way we can justify the underlying assumption of ALL science; namely, “The Observer is Independent of the Observation”. A measure of a colleague’s integrity is how they deal with uncertainty. Based on my association with Bert Tanner, he displayed the highest integrity in everything that he did, asking endless questions of many scientists to do his best to “get it right”. His tough, candid questions always revealed his unending determination to face “uncertainty” head on, recognizing that “there are no simple answers”. His incredible memory meant that he could hold conflicting perspectives in his mind and bridge opposing points of view in any discussion. Because Bert did not have the pressure of publishing, he could confront scientists when we were tempted to compromise in response to a warped reward system. From the unlikely position of a Vice President of Marketing, I believe that Bert Tanner modeled dealing with uncertainty in a way that we scientists would do well to take note.