I am incredibly honored to advise an excellent group of scientists, comprised of uniquely capable, curious, interesting, and wildly different people. Each member comes to the group following a different path, bringing a different perspective, and almost always having overcome hardships of one type or another. Scientific curiosity unites us, delight in one another’s achievements sustains us, and respect for one another’s humanity keeps us on course. This is the research group I wish to maintain.
We all have a role to play in making our world the best place it can be. Fundamentally and for starters, I affirm that excellence itself is maximized when a broad set of people and ideas are contributing to the framing of questions and the crafting of solutions. Moreover, only in a just world can our eyes be open wide enough, and our minds uncluttered enough, to see and understand all of the splendor that nature sets before us. This is the world I want to live in. Our challenge, which I welcome, is to connect, as the ancients suggested, mind and hand, word and deed, and of course theory and experiment.