Courses Taught:

Introductory Biology (1101-02; 1107-08)                          Microbiology (3110)
Genetics (3200)                                                              Immunology (4730)
Human Genetics (3210)                                                  Biology & Society (3130)

Research Interests:

Control of gene activity; Microbes and public health; Improving science education;  Extra-cellular enzymes of bacteria; Ethical issues in biology.

Educational Background:

1971            Cornell University                       B.S. (with honors)            Genetics
1975            Colorado University                    M.A.                                Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
1978            Cornell University                       Ph.D.                               Genetics and Development

Brief Bio and tidbits:

I was born in Gary, Indiana,  and was graduated from Lew Wallace High School. During my senior year in high school, I became interested in marine biology, a discipline that just was beginning to become popular. Very few schools had undergraduate courses in this discipline. I noticed that Cornell had one such course, so that school became my first choice. During my sophomore year-- while taking genetics, organic chemistry, physics, and differential equations--I was sitting in a genetics class and realized that this discipline was largely about solving puzzles, an activity that I loved, and that the subject did not require a lot of memorization, something that I was never very good at. Exit marine biology; enter genetics.

During my junior year, I began working in a lab that was using the ciliated protozoan, Tetrahymena thermophila to develop a model genetic system. I received a National Science Foundation fellowship for graduate school and headed west to the sun and snow of the University of Colorado, Boulder. Having spent four years in Ithaca, New York--a town that is surpassed in rainy days only by the Northwest--I quickly became fixated on the glowing object in the sky that others told me was the sun. I started out working with ciliates, but became more interested in developmental genetics of the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans. After four years of graduate school, I became frustrated with science and left.

A few months later I was urged/ordered back to graduate school at Cornell by a friend and mentor who was still working on ciliates. Having spent much time in Boulder watching friends work with bacteria and viruses and doing many short experiments, I chose for investigation a process that was complete in 90 minutes. Result: many experiments could be done in a day, or only one could be done in a short amount of time. While back at Cornell, I greatly improved my squash game to the point that I competed in national squash tournaments after leaving Cornell.

I left Cornell for a one year teaching job at Davidson College in North Carolina, then headed to Duke University to do a post doc in immunology. I arrived in Augusta in August, 1980.

I have three grown or almost grown children: a son who works in the art department for films, a daughter who will finish her dance degree at Ohio State in June, 2002, another son who is in the technical theater program at the University of Colorado, Boulder. (He applied there not knowing I had been there).

I would still like to play racquet sports, but old age has taken a toll on my knees and the muscles of my eyes. I walk, ride my bike, and swim now for exercise. I still enjoy puzzles of all kinds and any game that looks like a puzzle, especially Scrabble. I like to read mystery and suspense novels, but I can not stand Stephen King.

I developed a number of weekend science classes for children after spending hours with my own kids and their friends. These activities lead to five children's science books (the most recent, Bouncing Eggs, was published in 2000) and  to appearances on two different TV shows, Xis and Kidnection, as Wizard Wellnitz. In 1998 I became involved with the Georgia Science Olympiadas a regional tournament director, and have organized these events ever since. I presently have two golden retrievers and one white cat who thinks he is more dog that cat.