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WelcomeI am in transition from scientist to writer. Brief sketches of my background as a scientist and as a writer are as follows. After college (Harvard, AB; 1962) and postgraduate work (Caltech, PhD; 1967) I went to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda to do postdoctoral research on eye development. In 1981 I established the Laboratory of Molecular and Developmental Biology in the National Eye Institute at NIH and have been its Chief for 29 years. I have served on many scientific advisory boards and funding panels, lectured extensively nationally and internationally, and won a number of awards for my research, the Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research (2008) being the latest. I have published approximately 300 peer-reviewed scientific articles, book chapters and reviews, as well as a book (Gene Sharing and Evolution, Harvard University Press; 2007) detailed below. My scientific specialty is gene expression and evolution. I have a particular interest in marine biology and have published articles on squid, scallop and jellyfish eyes. Yes, scallop and jellyfish have eyes, remarkable ones at that! I have written short stories for some fifteen years in my spare time. In 2009 I became an Emeritus Scientist at NIH and am now deeply involved in writing. In a recent essay I developed the idea of basic science as creative narrative, comparable to literary and artistic endeavors, so for me the switch from science to writing is simply a new challenge for self-expression: both basic researchers and writers are often surprised how their narratives unfold and neither can predict with certainty how they will conclude. Both science and writing are an adventure. I have taken workshops at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, where I am presently on the Board of Directors. I have written a collection of short stories and published three personal essays and a poem in a small journal in British Columbia (Lived Experience). I am writing a novel and excited about starting a new professional life as a writer. |
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