My Life as a Pioneering Woman Scientist in a Golden Age of Science and Society.

Abstract

My time in science spans the period from the early 1960s to the present and has enabled me to experience science from the dawn of molecular biology to our current time of rapid technological advancement and knowledge explosion. I have also been privileged to be a part of the great democratization of science. I tell the story of this impactful time in science and society from the perspective of my personal and professional journey, starting from Lac repressor studies, progressing to studying bacterial transcription (most especially the "σ universe"), and now centering on the development and use of global technologies to solve the huge genotype-phenotype gap: how to acquire in years, not decades, gene function and pathway information in understudied organisms critical to human and planetary health. The scientific explosion I have witnessed also suggests that the potential for science to positively influence our world has never been higher.