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

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

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

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 a

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.

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 grow

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 h

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 nerv

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 f

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 defo