My path from Academia to Government Research


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The crucial decision that determined the professional direction I ultimately undertook came about almost by default.   At age 14, I resolved that I would complete a Ph.D. in biochemistry, molecular biology or a closely-related subject.  From that day forward, I defined myself as a future Ph.D. scientist.  One of my secret teen-age pleasures was to take the long public bus ride from my home town in northeast San Diego to La Jolla, where UC San Diego, the nearest hard-core science university, is located.  There, I would hang around the biochemistry and molecular biology lab buildings, peeking in windows, hoping to catch sight of the scientists at work.  I now know that the electricity I felt in the air, while wandering the halls of the university science buildings, was the creation of my highly idealistic, overly-developed imagination.