About Me I was born in Starachowice, Poland and immigrated to the United States with my family when I was six years old. Practically speaking this means my English is excellent but my Polish isn't very good! I've been a proud US Citizen since 2002! Although my family moved quite a bit, my fondest childhood memories are from Oviedo, Florida where I attended Jackson Heights Middle School and Oviedo High School. I went west to study at Caltech where I majored in Biology (BS 2006) and I returned back on the east coast for graduate school at MIT (PhD 2011). Since finishing my PhD in August of 2011 I've been at Essentient applying my scientific skills to the problem of global nutrition. On Food and Cooking… Even though I spend most of my time in lab doing molecular microbiology I like to dabble in molecular gastronomy (cooking) in my lab at home (kitchen). Historically my approach to cooking has been heavily influenced by two authors, Harold McGee (B.S. Caltech, 1973) and Michael Pollan. Harold McGee’s classic book On Food and Cooking: the Science and Lore of the Kitchen is the bible of food science, the definitive history and science of everything cooking. Michael Pollan’s best-seller The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals examines the environmental and public health implications of the way we eat. Together, these books have inspired me to work toward understanding food and cooking at a very basic biochemical level while at the same time honoring traditional foods that are simple and sustainable. Evolution and the Human Diet In recent years I've become interested in the question of what to eat from an even more fundamental evo/devo perspective. What did we evolve to eat and does deviation from our evolutionary diet contribute to Western Disease? I've found Dr. Staffan Lindenberg's Food and Western Diet to be a thought provoking look at the apparent consequences of our shift from a paleolithic diet of meat and fruit to one based on agricultural products like milk and wheat and more recently to a diet based on the industrial food complex (anything from a box). Dogs and People When I'm not solving the problem of global nutrition or cooking dinner, I enjoy spending time with my two companions Matthieu (human) and Darwin (canine). Our pack enjoys walks in the Boston Garden and day hikes outside of the city. |