Jim Umen: An Early Interest in Science

Growing up in suburban Twin Cities, Jim Umen had an early interest in the natural world.

“I remember visiting the beach when I was 7 or 8 and loved exploring tidepools. Each one was a different little world populated with animals and seaweeds.”

During a short internship program in high school, he worked in a microbiology lab and cemented his interest in in biology. As an undergraduate, he became interested in cancer research, but in graduate school some mentors steered him toward microbial genetics and he found his calling. As a postdoc at Washington University, he became fascinated by a single-celled species of algae (Chlamydomonas) that has become a model species for understanding the biology of green algae.