Georgetown College. Georgetown University.

Dr. Joe Neale (Photo: Roland Dimaya)

What do you regard as your greatest academic success?
Learning how to teach Introductory Biology I to a large class and keep this course current with the substantial advances in cell and molecular biology over the past 30 years.

What is your idea of happiness?
Raising children with the right partner, companion, and soul mate.

Who or what was the greatest influence in your life that led to your career?
Biology Department Professor George B. Chapman.

If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently?
No, looking back now I would not change a thing about my professional life. I have had terrific experiences in science and some good luck along the way. One great fortune was the serendipity that brought me back to Georgetown as an Assistant Professor. I was twice blessed to have discovered research as a career and subsequently in finding the other part of my career as a teacher.

What do you enjoy about teaching?
Finding the path each year by which I challenge students to engage and learn at the highest level while trying to inspire them with the wonder and beauty of molecules that constitute the cells that make up all creatures, large and small.

Who are your favorite heroes/heroines in real life (and why)?
My parents. They put themselves through school (nursing school, college, and law school) during the Great Depression. They went to war and sacrificed to protect freedom and democracy, when that phrase was more than the political quackery it has become today. They instilled an appreciation of family as the center of life. They were at their best when their children were in trouble. They inspired a belief in the importance of understanding one’s good fortune and contributing to the well being of others. My father often told the story of his mother and father just “making it” through the years of the depression, but always being ready to feed the homeless men who regularly appeared at the back door of their small home in D.C.

Who is your favorite musician?
Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac.

What historical figure would you most like to meet and why?
I am a person of my times: John F. Kennedy. I was an undergraduate student in Introductory Biology I laboratory at Georgetown the day he was shot.

If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?
No brainer, the daily hunger that results from poverty in the U.S. and throughout the world.

If you could change one thing at Georgetown, what would it be?
Add another 100 acres to the main campus.

If you could come back to life as a plant/animal/thing, what would it be?
An eagle. I imagine a sense of freedom and joy in soaring through the air.

What is your favorite word?
Militate.

What, if any, is your phobia?
Overcooked vegetables.

How do you have fun?
Skiing, golf, HBO, shouting "No, stop, stop hitting each other!" to my 5- and 6-year-old sons.

What is the best piece of advice you could give to your students?
Don’t sweat the small stuff.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
From my father: “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”

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