Tom is the Joan and Richard Komen Endowed Chair of Biology. He recieved his BS and MS at the University of Wisconsin, a PhD at Duke and was the Bantrell Postdoctoral Fellow in Engineering Sciences at Caltech until 1984 when he joined the University of Washington and has been here ever since. He is the proud recipient of the University of Washington 1989 Distinguished Teaching Award and the 2001 Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award as well as a MacArthur fellowship.