Science, like Art, can be very difficult to define.  My principal scientific interest is biology--but, what is life?  The complexity of this question is the topic of this video, taken from one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek, the Next Generation, "The Quality of Life."  Commander Data is confused...

...and I share his (it's?) confusion.  My life-long fascination with biology, resulted in a degree in zoology and a minor in botany from Southern Illinois University.  But my interests seemed to focus ever-smaller and I went through phases of intense sudy in electron microscopy, genetics, developmental biology and embryology.  Clearly, the SIU Department of Zoology, which specialized in wildlife biology, could no longer contain my interests. So, I entered the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver and several years later I was awarded a Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology, with expertise in hormone-regulated gene expression.  Shortly thereafter I moved to Seattle with a fat little degree in my hand to do a post-doc at the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute determined to study molecular parasitology.  Unfortunately, the position at SBRI didn't last long and I found myself working at the Puget Sound VA Medical Center in conjunction with the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington. There I studied gene expression of platelet proteins and later prostate cancer biology followed by the regulation of rat brain gene expression related to body weight metabolism.  Most of my work after undergraduate school has been related to some aspect of gene expression, i.e. the creation of RNA from the DNA template that eventually encodes proteins.  Details and related publications are available in my scientific CV.