Georgetown College. Georgetown University.

What do you regard as your greatest academic success?

It sounds corny, but watching the continued success of my students and postdoctoral fellows after they leave Georgetown.

What is your idea of happiness?

Lots of things make me happy on different levels. Some of the best are beach combing with my two kids, watching a grad student make an important independent discovery, developing a new technique or assay to successfully address a particularly difficult problem, placing in the top ten in my age category in a triathlon after 6 months of training, or a highly productive conversation with a trusted collaborator.

Who or what was the greatest influence in your life that led to your career?

The people and experiences that taught me about fatal diseases that primarily affect children.

If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently?

I would have started doing triathlons earlier in life. I would also have spent more time explaining what my lab is all about to people working in it and around it; too many people don’t understand science and scientists all that well. Before my life became this busy I would have liked to have had more time to spend on subjects I was not all that fond of but that are important fundamentals nonetheless.

What do you enjoy about teaching?

Everything except exams and grading.

Who are your favorite heroes/heroines in real life (and why)?

Prof. Arthur Kornberg, for his work, his incredibly long career, and because his laboratory has produced more excellent biochemistry faculty at top schools than any other;

Prof. H. Gobind Khorana, for cracking the genetic code, and for being a chemist that dared to learn molecular biology;

Bill Gates, because of his philanthropy and dedication to curing diseases that devastate developing nations;

Anyone that has ever served in the US military, the FBI, local law enforcement, or a fire department, because they are the toughest jobs you can have;

Lance Armstrong, because he never gives up;

Prof. Erwin Chargaff, for his work in biochemistry and because he once said "One of the most insidious and nefarious propensities of scientific models is their ability to supplant, and at times take over, reality", which is one of the best quotes about science ever uttered;

My wife, because she keeps everything balanced.

Who is your favorite musician?

It changes all the time based on the CDs people send me and what concerts I've been too lately ... currently it is a tie between Derek Trucks and Emmylou Harris.

Who is your favorite thinker?

It is impossible to pick just one, there are too many different ways to think about things ... Confucius, Aristotle, Euclid, Copernicus, Shakespeare, Newton, Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Ghandi, Einstein, Otto Warburg, William Carlos Williams, H.L. Mencken, Richard Feynman, Peter Mitchell are some of my favorites. When I am stuck in a rut I re read what these people wrote.

What historical figure would you most like to meet and why?

There are too many of them to name just one, there are so many historical events that require better explanations, or wrongs that anyone would love to go back in time to correct ... In the 20th century, I would have really liked to have a half hour alone with George Elser so I could lend him my digital watch. If that didn't work out, then a private visit with Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin together at Yalta to find out what was truly said and promised, or with Robert Oppenheimer, to find out what really went on during and after the Manhattan Project. Also, with Martin Luther King on April 3rd 1968, with Mohamed Atta on Sept. 10 2001, and with John Paul Vann just after the battle of Ap Bac. Across all time, wouldn't it be great to meet Cortez before he landed in the new world so one could explain the concept of immunity? Or Da Vinci, to find out how in God's name he thought up plate tectonics and the helicopter? Or Ramses the II to learn how he ran all those construction projects?

If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?

One thing wouldn't be enough, it would need to be at least 3 in order to get anywhere: Ignorance, religious intolerance, and the developed West's relatively small committment to curing diseases that kill millions of innocent kids in the developing world every year.

If you could change one thing at Georgetown, what would it be?

Science departmental boundaries, and "fiefdom traditions" within and across our campuses. Science is just science, and it needs a well tuned interdisciplinary environment to truly flourish.

If you could come back to life as a plant/animal/thing, what would it be?

A porpoise or a 1935 000 Martin Guitar.

What is your favorite word?

Dad.

What, if any, is your phobia?

Not getting everything done.

How do you have fun?

Playing and exploring with my kids, training for triathlons, playing guitar in my garage, cooking Sunday breakfast.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

Work your butt off.

What is the best piece of advice you could give to your students?

Work your butt off.

What is your motto?

If you concentrate on bowling spares, sooner or later the strikes will come.

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