“I became interested in science primarily due to a middle school teacher who showed us really fun and exciting science experiments. He would ask us questions and then do experiments, and show us how we could use what we observed to figure out the answers. Seeing that as young students was really fascinating, that we could interrogate nature in an experimental way like that and figure out more about it. I knew that was something that I wanted to do, to go out and learn more. I have mentored others throughout my educational training since high school. Right now, I'm mentoring an undergrad student. I always look forward to these opportunities because you learn more during mentoring. It's really productive for both parties, I think. For example, the undergrad student working with me right now is a real expert in computational biology, which I don't have a lot of background in. We go back and forth between things that I know that she wants to learn and things she knows that I want to learn, so it's a really fun and exciting learning environment for both of us."