Conversations with Maya: Walter Carter Jr.

Maya Ajmera, President & CEO of Society for Science and Executive Publisher of Science News, chatted with Walter “Ted” Carter Jr., President of The Ohio State University. Before serving as Ohio State’s President, Carter served as President of the University of Nebraska System. He also led the U.S. Naval Academy and retired as a vice admiral with 38 years of service and more than 6,300 flying hours. Carter is a 1977 alumnus of the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), a program of Society for Science. Here is an edited version of the conversation.

Do you have any favorite memories from ISEF?

Participating in ISEF was a pivotal moment in my life. I was a high school senior in Rhode Island, and the fair was in Cleveland. It was my first time flying in an airplane, and I got to attend a Cleveland Major League Baseball game at the old Municipal Stadium. I recall being able to hear the baseball players talking in the dugout.

My strongest memory of ISEF was the diversity of students from all over the world who were there. For a small-town kid like me, it was overwhelming how big a deal this was.

My project focused on using water Daphnia, or water fleas, to detect pollutants in well water in Rhode Island. I created a method for detecting certain water pollutants faster than the state of Rhode Island could. I won a couple of big awards, including an award from the U.S. Naval Institute. A week after I won that award, I was accepted to the U.S. Naval Academy even though I was a backup/alternate.

All of this is not disconnected. I was accepted into the Naval Academy because of what happened at ISEF. I went to the Naval Academy and studied oceanography and physics. Twenty years after I graduated, I commanded a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and then returned to higher education. Everything started at ISEF in Cleveland.

You led the U.S. Naval Academy as its longest continuously serving superintendent since the Civil War. How did your experience in the Navy shape your approach to leadership in higher education?

For me, all the things that make me good at my job come from my curiosity about science and math. My technical skills served me well in high school and as an undergraduate at the Naval Academy. In the Navy, I became a nuclear engineer, which was a precursor to commanding a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

When the Navy asked me to lead in higher education, I took the lessons I learned while flying in high-performance; tactical jet aircraft; becoming a top gun graduate; teaching young men and women how to fly in the F-14 Tomcat and the F/A-18F Super Hornet; and rebuilding a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. That gave me the tools to lead large, complex organizations.

What I found is that the basics of leadership matter. It didn’t matter what organization I was in, certain principles seemed to work everywhere: Do things collaboratively; give people the resources they need to do their job; empower your team; praise them when they’re successful and when things don’t go right, take the blame.

As the president of the University of Nebraska, you launched the Nebraska Promise, a financial aid program guaranteeing full tuition for students from low- and middle-income backgrounds. What has been the impact?

The impact was profound. We knew when we launched the Nebraska Promise at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 that there was a need for such a program. I told my team that everyone in higher education was going to be focused on protecting themselves and making sure that they could just keep the ball rolling. I said, “This is our opportunity to do some really bold things that might normally take us three or four years to get done.”

We offered the program in May 2020, and 5,000 students signed up. By 2024, the program had supported 18,000 students. We are now starting to see the first group of Nebraska Promise students graduate, and their performance is at the same level or higher than every other cohort.

You are now President at The Ohio State University. You have said Ohio State will play a key role in changing the narrative of higher education in the United States. How?

People are telling us that higher education costs too much. They’re not sure there’s a return on investment. This past summer, a Gallup Poll reported that only 36 percent of Americans have a high confidence in post-secondary education.

I think Ohio State is the institution that can change that narrative. According to a recent survey of Ohioans by the Association of American Universities, over 72 percent said they had high confidence in Ohio State. I believe the large public land grant R1 research universities like Ohio State are going to be the engine that will fuel higher education in the future.

Today, 58 percent of students who graduate from Ohio State, and are from Ohio, leave here with zero debt — that’s 20 percent better than the national average. Those who do have debt owe about $24,000, which is about 20 percent better than the national average. We are going to improve on that going forward because I believe that nobody should make a decision about whether to go to college or university based on the cost. That’s what we did in Nebraska, and we are going to continue to do that here in Ohio.

What advice do you have for young people just starting out in higher education or their careers who are hoping to make a positive impact in the world?

The first thing I would tell them is to be a generalist and get exposure to different ideas. Then, follow your passion and become an expert in something that you care about. We need experts, and your expertise will allow you to stand out.

In May, Regeneron ISEF will take place in Columbus. What makes Columbus and Ohio a hub for innovation?

People will be surprised when they come to Columbus and see how cosmopolitan and diverse it is. It’s the fastest growing city in the United States. Large industry is already here and there’s more coming, including an expanded presence of Honda, Amgen and Intel.

This also is a town with an entrepreneurial spirit that people will see and understand right away. Start-ups come to Columbus and thrive.

What books are you reading now, and what books inspired you when you were younger?

Full disclosure, my mother was an English teacher in my high school, and she was my English teacher for three out of my four years there. A lot of my early reading came from things that she taught in the classroom. I recall enjoying the Hornblower Saga book series, and I was interested in sports and read books about hockey players Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe.

Recently, I picked up I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, which is an autobiography of Gen. James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle.

There are many challenges facing our world today. What’s keeping you up at night?

The thing that keeps me up at night is where people are going for the truth. There is so much information out there, and we like having it at our fingertips. But how do we know that what we’re reading is really true? This is something we are going to have to address as we head into a new world of artificial intelligence, generative AI and large database computing.