The MAD Scientist Hall of Fame

Name: Jim McCarter

Country of Residence: USA

Areas of Science: Development, Evolution, Genetics, Parasitology

Joined: 1995

Comments: Genetics and germ line development in C. elegans

Web Pages: Tim Schedl Lab; Worm Teaching Team; Graduate Student Representatives

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Biography: Updated: 5/21/97 Hello Mad Sci. Visitors! I am an M.D. and Ph.D. student at Washington University in my 7th year in the Developmental Biology Program and Dept. of Genetics nearing the completion of my thesis work on oocyte development, maturation, and ovulation in the nematode worm C. elegans. My wife is also an M.D. / Ph.D. program, but in Microbiology and Cell Biology. My scientific interests, beginning around age 5, have gone from paleontology, to astronomy, to architecture, to physics, to biology, to evolution, to neuroscience, to development, to genetics, to parasitology. (Can I explain how these are all connected?) I've been heavily involved with science education since co-founding the Young Scientist Program at Washington Univ. 6 years ago. My career plan is to use C. elegans as a model system for studying parasitic nematodes.(Parasitic nematodes infect 2.9 _billion_ people and cause billions of dollars in damage to crops and livestock each year.) Besides doing science these days, I play basketball, work in student government, read extensively, and help my wife with her garden and pets. You can contact me at mccarter@genetics.wustl.edu