History


I was born at a very early age on November 14th in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1972. I lived there for nine years, during which time I acquired (through no effort of my own, of course) two younger sisters. I went to Greenoak Elementary School where I had bad handwriting, read voraciously, and decided I wanted to be an astronaut. If you knew me then, mail me and let me know what you're doing now, I'd love to hear from you!

At the age of nine, my family and I moved to Seattle, WA, where I lived until I went to college. Just after we arrived my youngest younger sister was born. (That was quite a move for my mom, let me tell you!) I attended Wing Luke Elementary School, South Shore Middle School, and Garfield High School. Over time, my desire to be an astronaut mellowed into an interest in science in general, until my sophomore year of High School, when I took a Genetics class from Mrs. Masse, and decided that biochemistry was absolutely fascinating.

From there, I went to Wheaton College where I majored in Chemistry with an emphasis in Biochem. The second half of my freshman year I met Rick, who it seemed I had known my whole life by the end of the year, and my sophomore year I met Sara (actually Rick's former girl friend) and we started dating. We were engaged the summer after my senior year.

I'm now in grad school at Rice University, where I'm a member of the W. M. Keck Center for Computational Biology, and am in Dr. Olson's lab, where I beat the tar out of hemoglobins' structure to try to get it to work as a blood substitute.

If you really want to know more, mail me! (Sheeeah, right,...)


This line last updated May 22nd, 1995 AD
lpsmith @rice.edu