Leading With Science

Meet Damien Fair, PhD, PA-C., the curious and collaborative ‘genius grant’ recipient at the helm of the new Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain.

Picture an undergraduate organic chemistry class, early in the semester. The only Black student, a basketball star clad in practice sweats and a backward baseball cap, leans casually back in his chair. While his classmates take notes, he simply stares ahead. Is this kid even listening, the professor wonders?

“I didn’t take notes because I could never really learn that way; I just kind of soaked it in. But that looks pretty bad to a professor,” Damien Fair says with a laugh. Read University of Minnesota Foundation Discovery feature published spring 2021.