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As a graduate student, you studied in the Caribbean, researching how corals use CO2 to make their skeletons. How did you go from corals to cement?
I chose to work on biomineralization because I was really interested in structures. In fact, I started off as an architecture major at Berkeley. However, when I saw some of the natural structures, like diatoms and other organisms, I thought, “Man, this is really the most exciting stuff around!” And I stopped doing architecture and I instead double majored in Aquatic Biology and Geologic Sciences, bringing mineralogy and biology together. My specialty is called biomineralization–how organisms form minerals. I was really impressed by how fast corals could mineralize!
Later on, when I learned more about osteoporosis and how it was a huge health care expense, I had a light bulb moment: ”If I could create a skeleton in the patient in the operating room, that would really be a huge step forward!”
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