I was born in Mount Clemens, Michigan. After attending public schools, I took undergraduate training in biology, geology and mathematics at both Oakland University (Rochester, Michigan) and Humboldt State University (Arcata, California). In 1991, I interned with Stuart Kauffman at the Santa Fe Institute. My interests in the origin of life lead me to Bill Schopf's laboratory in the Geology program at UCLA. In 1993 I identified RNA as an ideal experimental system for testing elements of complexity theory pertaining to biological evolution. My dissertation research focused on bioinformatics and the development of analytical and computational models of molecular evolution and included an informal education in molecular biology first at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole and then at Duke University Medical Center (in the labs of Jack Keene and Dave and Jane Richardson). In 1997, I joined the laboratory of David Bartel at the Whitehead Institute (MIT), whereby I used synthetic RNA constructs in vitro, to probe the intrinsic structure of RNA sequence space. Many more experiments remain to be done. I have been a private consultant in science and communication since 2005. This work has included the production of digital video content for clients in the arts and sciences, including No Island Media, The Parmenides Foundation and Wolfram Research, Inc. I am co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Sequenomics, LLC.
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