I grew up in Maryland in the DC suburbs.

January 2005.

I was in a soft-money research position at the University of Arizona. Soft money means that I had to pay my entire salary out of research grants. If I didn’t get grants, I couldn’t buy groceries. Five years of that was enough, so I took a less insecure position at UNLV.

B.A. in chemistry from the University of Chicago. I started as a math major and was one course short of finishing when I decided to go into biology. I switched to a chemistry major because (a) I figured it would give me a competitive advantage over biologists who were afraid of chemistry (it has), and (b) I wouldn’t have to take boring biology major courses like developmental biology, endocrinology, cell biology, etc. My lab now does research in developmental biology, endocrinology, cell biology, etc.

Ph.D. in marine biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. I wasn't interested in marine biology at all, but there was a professor there who studied how proteins adapt to different environmental conditions. It seemed like a good opportunity to combine my chemistry background with my real interests in ecology and evolution. By sheer dumb luck I wound up in the leading lab in the world in this area

My original plan was to play center field for the San Francisco Giants, but it didn’t work out. I always liked animals, so biology seemed like a good second choice. I didn’t know exactly what field it would be when I graduated, so I got a job as a tech in a herpetology lab. I discovered that I could be paid to use my educational background, work with animals, and solve puzzles at the same time. What could possibly be better?

I study environmental physiology: how organisms interact with and respond to their surroundings. I like the fact that I can study adaptation at time scales from evolution over millennia to a few minutes, and I can think in ecological terms or at the level of individual genes, and I am still doing environmental physiology.

Right now my main focus is evolution by natural selection in the lab, using fruit flies as a study system. By subjecting populations to different stresses, we can study how animals might adapt to similar conditions in nature; then we can go out and see if they really do this. For example, we have created an artificial desert in my lab and compared flies living there to flies from real deserts. In a related project, we have evolved the world's fattest fruit flies. They have bad hearts and a sleep disorder, and are so fat they can barely fly. When I give talks, I call them my All-American flies and tell the audience they own guns and drive pickups (like me)

That it isn't important because it has nothing to do with helping humans.

Two counter examples: my post-doctoral advisor was interested in tardigrades, which are tiny animals that can dehydrate completely and come back to life when placed in water. While studying this, he developed methods for long-term preservation of pharmaceuticals. The last thing he did before retiring was figure out how to preserve blood platelets, which are essential for clotting, in a dried state. Basic research on tardigrades has led to applications used to save wounded soldiers in our latest wars.

My own lab is now working with a lab at the National Institutes of Health to test potential anti-obesity drugs on our fruit flies. So far these have only been tested in cell culture; now they need to be tested in real animals. If we can make our fat flies (and other animal models) skinny, these might lead to applications in humans. After all, why exercise and eat right if you can just take a pill?

Finally, climate change is here. Understanding how organisms have adapted and can adapt to changing climates will be essential in the coming years. As far as I’m concerned, this is the most important thing. All the biomedical research in the world will be pointless if the planet becomes unlivable.

Biology majors: Take as much math, chemistry, and physics as you can handle. You can always look up information about biology, and many of the specific facts will change before you graduate. Having the skill set to think quantitatively will give you a competitive advantage over your colleagues who are scared of math, chemistry, and physics.

Other majors: Don't change the channel the next time a science show comes on. You never know what you'll learn, but it is definitely more than you will learn from a sit-com or "reality" show.

Don't text and drive.