First UTSW job: Postdoctoral fellow.

Best part about my job: I love doing scientific research and mentoring students.

How co-workers describe me: I hope they would say that I am a good person.

Best UTSW memory: Many wonderful meetings with Nobel Laureate and former UTSW Chair of Neuroscience Thomas Südhof, M.D., which were extremely stimulating from an intellectual point of view. The friendships I established with Dr. Südhof, former faculty member Xiaodong Wang, Ph.D., and Michael Rosen, Ph.D., Chair of Biophysics, are perhaps even more important to me.

My proudest UTSW accomplishment: Elucidating the molecular mechanism underlying fusion of biological membranes.

I’m really good at: I believe I play chess quite well, with a victory over the champion of Spain when I was 17 years old and a recent victory over a two-time U.S. Champion in a blitz chess game.

Hobbies: Reading and chess.

Claim to fame: I received some indirect recognition with the awarding of the Nobel Prize and other big awards given to my longtime collaborator Dr. Südhof. I do not worry much about fame, but if I am right about the molecular mechanism of membrane fusion that I have discovered, any recognition would be small compared to the satisfaction I will feel for this accomplishment.

Final note: I am very proud to have come from a humble family of seven children. I began to work full time at 15 years old while studying in high school, and later in college in the evenings. Passing the first year of college is the most difficult thing I ever did.

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