all things!) convinced me that science
might be out of reach after all. My
fairly recent (and pregnant) wife and I
decided to pack our bags and head off
to graduate school where I was fortunate
enough to work with ecophysiologist
Erik Nilsen at Virginia Tech for
masters then PhD degrees. I still
wonder why he took me under his
wing—I was a babe in biological
research, with no experience in science.
His nuturing and the support of my wife
got me through the MS in ecology.
With a bit more confidence, I decided to
add DNA into the fix of ecology and
studied the population genetics and phe-
notypic plasticity of cranberry. I can still
recall the laughter among my peers
when I said in the early 1990s that I
wanted to be a molecular ecologist. No
one there had ever heard of such a
thing, but my choice of phraseology
was validated when the journal
“Molecular Ecology” was begun.
Severely bitten by the DNA bug by this
time, I was also fortunate to gain
entrance into Wayne Parrott’s lab at the
University of Georgia. I think he was
having a hard time finding a well-
qualified postdoc, and I was foolish
enough to naively launch into a soybean
transformation project. Soybean trans-
formation was notoriously difficult and
I had absolutely no experience in trans-
genics. But again, I was fortunate to
team up with Donna Tucker in
Wayne’s lab. She is one of those few
gifted scientists who has the “golden
hands” in the craft of tissue culture and
an eye to select the right stuff and
throw the wrong stuff away.
Biosafety research was then a natural
area for me to combine transgenics
and ecology—something I began in
Wayne’s lab and have continued on
during my career as a faculty
member. Initially, I was a GMO
sceptic—I was convinced that there
would be ecological downsides of
releasing trillions of transgenic plants
into the environment. But by 2004
when I had written Genetically
Modified Planet I had become con-
vinced by reams of data that there
were far more current and potential
environmental benefits from biotech-
nology than risks. I still loved nature
and could clearly see how the technol-
ogy could make farming more environ-
mentally friendly. My lab is now full
of exciting young scientists who are
researching environmental biotechnol-
ogy projects ranging from the
ecology of transgenic plants to plants
designed to detect contaminants, such
as the explosive TNT, in the environ-
ment. I’ve also become very interested
in the genomics of weedy and invasive
plants. It seems to me that these plants,
with genomes adapted to competing
against crops and natural vegetation
are a much larger threat to the environ-
ment than GMOs, yet it is a severely
underfunded and understudied field.
I’ve become convinced that we worry
about the wrong things.In my own life I was worried that I was
“not smart enough” for science. I’ve
been worried that research funding
would dry up. Worried about lab person-
nel. Worry is a waste of time, since the
things I’ve worried about have been
moot. My advice to students is to
follow their dreams, focus, and find the
right people to help make their dreams
come true.LIFE BOX 9.2. C. NEAL STEWART, JR. 241