Scientist Spotlight: Kerry Bloom | Chromosome Research

Microtubules and motorcycles: Here's an entertaining interview with Kerry Bloom, professor and chair of Biology at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, who encountered "science with passion" when he took the MBL Embryology course in 1976. Bloom returned to MBL for many years from the 1980s to the late 2000s, teaching and co-directing in the Physiology course and in the Logan Science Journalism Program, as a Whitman scientist, and serving as a MBL Trustee and Science Council member.

Q: How did you become interested in science and what was your path through undergraduate, graduate school, and postdoctoral training? Were there major lessons you learned along the way?

KB: I should start by saying that I had no idea what graduate school was, or what a career in academia was. My parents were in business, and it was drummed into me at an early age that an interest in Biology translated into a pre-med path. My first hint of research was through a High School program where we found a lab at one of the local Universities to volunteer. I landed in the lab of Dr. Stanley Falkow, then at Georgetown University. My job was to collect water from the Potomac River and analyze samples looking for Salmonella. What an amazing experience. I remember sitting in Dr. Falkow’s office, hearing him talk about DNA and captivated at how interested he was. I had not seen anyone that interested in their “day job”. Needless to say, we found Salmonella, and I got my first taste of research.

I went to Tulane University for college, picked in large part with the use of a compass to find schools that were within a 24-h drive from Washington D.C. (I was allowed to be a day’s drive away from home). While I don’t recommend this as a general strategy, it is the first of many random walks that have been formative in my career. Read more of the article here.

Source: Scientist Spotlight: Kerry Bloom | SpringerLink