Professor Profiles: Professor passionate about food, politics and living life to the fullest
Michael Lyons’ philosophy of life is to embrace it and to take advantage of what it has to offer.
“That’s the way I’ve lived,” Lyons, an associate professor in political science, said. “Sometimes it doesn’t work out all that well, though.”
Lyons said he has broad interests with everything from academic research in political science to hobbies. He said he doesn’t focus on one thing and he’s not very good at specializing.
“I’m too impatient,” he said. “I believe in having a balanced life.”
Lyons keeps his balance with various outdoor activities. He said he is an avid fly-fisher and he mostly does it locally.
“It goes to a dangerous extreme beyond avid,” he said. “In the summer, I’ll leave the office at 4 and there’s a fly-fishing spot 20 minutes away. It’s a good workout and a lot of fun.”
He said he also likes to downhill ski and grow exotic tomato varieties.
“I’m too old for moguls,” Lyons said, “I just really enjoy outdoors. It’s a good release. When you’re skiing, you forget about everything else. I’m an intense person and I like to be engrossed in what I’m doing.”
This May, Lyons will be traveling to Turkey, Greece and France.
“I’m good at collecting frequent flier miles,” he said.
Lyons said when he is traveling, he is brave when it comes to food and he will even eat things with tentacles. He also likes to cook.
“I keep moving on to new things – French, Italian, Mexican, whatever,” he said.
At USU basketball games, Lyons has season tickets for eighth row seats. He said he is a big fan.
Although he does support Aggie basketball, he said he doesn’t eat Aggie ice cream. While deliberately trying to create controversy, Lyons said the ice cream is too sweet.
“I think we should explore making Italian-style gelato instead,” he said.
Lyons has two daughters. He said one is serving as an intern with Ted Kennedy and the other is a freshman at Logan High School.
Born outside Buffalo, N.Y., Lyons grew up in California and lived in Montana for a while.
He got all of his degrees at the University of California Santa Barbara in political science.
“I got there and didn’t want to leave,” he said.
At first, his undergraduate major was physics because his parents wanted him to be a scientist, but he said he changed because he found more interest in human behavior.
“I’ve never regretted going into political science,” Lyons said.
Politics obviously play a large role in Lyons’ life. His office, which has a great view of Cache Valley, is decorated with a Kennedy/Johnson campaign sticker and the 2004 presidential election results.
Lyons said politics are a fact of life and they aren’t going to go away.
“The fate of the world depends on political systems. Organize them poorly and there’s a lot at stake here. I have a lot of respect for the other people who go into it,” Lyons said. “In general, universities are great institutions – I really believe in their mission – teaching and research.”
Even though he had other job offers, an opportunity to teach at a quality university in the West brought Lyons to Logan.
“I’ve been treated very well by the university,” Lyons said. “It’s a great place to have a career.”
“I like the four-seasons climate here and the recreational opportunities are incredible,” he said. “The culture is more conservative than I am personally, but Utah is a lot more diverse than people realize.”
Lyons said USU does a great job educating undergraduate students.
“The best students at USU can compete with the best students anywhere,” Lyons said. “We send them out to law school and they do well. We send them to PhD programs and they do well.”
At a larger school, students would have very little contact with faculty, he said.
-hollyadams@cc.usu.edu