It was a high
school English class that is responsible for me being a scientist
today. I had to write a report on something in the news, and at that
time there was this crazy idea that scientists would decode the entire
human genome. The ideas and social repercussions of the Human Genome Project fascinated me to no end and has led me here today. I
received a B.A. in anthropology and a B.S. in biology from Indiana
University in 1996. I received my Ph.D in human genetics from the
University of Utah in 2001 where I identified and studied genes
responsible for human diseases like epilepsy and movement disorders. Afterwards, I moved to
Freiburg, Germany for my first postdoctoral fellowship at the Max
Planck Institute where I studied genes that control development of the
facial bones in the zebrafish. I moved back to the US in 2005 and
continued my research at the University of California, Irvine. (If you are curious, you can access my publications here.) Although research science was an exciting outlet for my scientific curiosities, I find that teaching other people about the amazing wonders of biology keeps me inspired to learn more and is very rewarding. Therefore, I joined the Life Science program at Golden West College in 2008. |
|
