InterViews from The National Academy of Sciences

As a young man, neurobiologist John Hildebrand was torn between his love of science and his passion for playing music. So he chose to live a dual life, working as a professional musician by night and leading innovative scientific studies of the insect nervous system by day. Using the moth Manduca sexta as a model, Hildebrand has explored the connection between olfaction--the sense of smell--and behavior. His work has revealed unexpected links between smell perception and brain development, as well as the role of smell in feeding and host selection--an area of research that's critical to human health because it plays a role in vector-borne diseases like malaria. John Hildebrand is a Regents' professor of neuroscience at the University of Arizona. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2007.

When he was growing up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Jeremiah Ostriker seldom got to see the stars. But he still went on to become one of the world's most influential astronomers. Ostriker was among the first researchers in the field of cosmology-the study of the origin and fate of the universe-to propose a model of the universe that accounts for two unseen elements that are shaping it: gravitationally powerful dark matter, which holds galaxies together, and dark energy, a mysterious force pushing the universe apart. He has since studied the formation of galaxies and their relationship with black holes. Jeremiah Ostriker is a professor of astronomy at Columbia University in New York City. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1974.

As the daughter of a biochemist, Rowena Matthews met more than her share of scientists. But she never thought she could become one, because most of them were men. It wasn't until college that Matthews discovered her own passion for biochemistry, and the possibility of juggling cutting-edge research with motherhood and a rich family life. Throughout her career, Matthews has explored how enzymes work within the body. Her studies have revealed the surprising and complex reactions that enzymes and vitamins can set in motion, including some that play prominent roles in human health. Rowena Matthews is a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002.

Donald Saari grew up exploring the woods of northern Michigan, where he developed a lasting curiosity about the natural world. He found a way to understand and use that curiosity in the field of mathematics. He has used math to unravel a number of different mysteries, including how planets move around their suns and whether voting accurately represents the will of the people. The analytical methods he helped develop have given scientists everywhere new tools for understanding how the world works. Donald Saari is a Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Economics at the University of California, Irvine. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2001.

Susan Taylor says she dreams about molecules, but she never planned to work on them. The Wisconsin-born biochemist intended to be a doctor, until love led her in a different direction-and she never looked back. Taylor is known for having unraveled the molecular structure of protein kinase, an enzyme that helps turn on and off some of the most important processes in the human body. Her work has given other scientists the tools they needed to understand the structure and role of other kinases, and how to use them to develop new, more effective treatments for disease. Susan Taylor is a Professor of Pharmacology, Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1996.

Why does your nose look like your nose? Why doesn't it look like your elbow, when the DNA in your nose and your elbow are the same? These seemingly simple questions have captivated Mina Bissell for the past 40 years. Bissell faced quite a bit of resistance when she set out to find the answers: it was the 1960s and she was female, foreign and had unconventional ideas. But she'd grown up surrounded by strong, educated women in Iran, so she never thought to give up. Instead, she persisted, and what she found changed how we think about cancer. Specifically, she discovered that the stuff around cells-molecules called the "extracellular matrix"-can determine whether cells stay healthy or become sick. Mina Bissell is a distinguished scientist in the life sciences division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2010.

In the span of about four years, Tom Jordan went from flunking out of college to teaching at an Ivy League university. But that dramatic turnaround isn't the only drama in Jordan's life. The Panama-born geophysicist specializes in the drama of the deep. His research has revealed the deep structures underlying continents, the inner workings of plate tectonics and new insights into how earthquakes happen. Tom Jordan is the W. M. Keck Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Southern California, where he also directs the Southern California Earthquake Center. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1998.

Diane Griffin's science education started early. The daughter of a geologist, Griffin learned about the world from every hike or drive she shared with her father. But in the end, it wasn't rocks that won her heart,it was viruses. Griffin has spent her career studying how viruses make us sick, and how our bodies respond to them. Her work has shed light on how viruses impact the nervous system and the immune system, and on the surprising ways they can continue to affect health long after patients recover. Diane Griffin is the Alfred and Jill Sommer Professor and Chair in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004.

Sociologist Yu Xie learned early that society can profoundly shape a person's life. Growing up during China's Cultural Revolution, he experienced his father's political imprisonment and his family's subsequent exile to a rural village. Their struggles left him with a deep-seated skepticism that would later fuel his scientific research. After abandoning his engineering studies and finding his way to the University of Wisconsin, Xie turned his skepticism and curiosity to the study of people and the social structures that affect them. He developed new methods for analyzing social data and challenged accepted ideas about gender, race, class and innate ability. Xie is the Otis Dudley Duncan Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2009.

The loss of tropical forests worldwide is a big part of the climate change puzzle, and we wouldn't know it if it weren't for Ruth DeFries. Her innovative use of satellite images-or "remote sensing"-to study how humans are changing their planet has revealed some of science's big surprises, from the rate and extent of rainforest loss in the Amazon to the role urban areas play in deforestation. It has also revolutionized how governments respond to land use change, because many now employ her techniques to monitor and protect their natural resources. DeFries, the recipient of a 2007 MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant, is currently the Denning Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia University in New York City. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2006.