Profile – Argon Zone

Education:

Cashmere High School, Christchurch, New Zealand. 1983-88.
Qualifications:

Undergrad – Lincoln University, New Zealand, 1989-92. Postgrad – Cambridge, England. 1993-1997.
Work History:

I did a postdoctoral fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, USA for four years. CDC is the US public health institute, very interesting place to work, made friend with people working with unusual pathogens like Ebola Virus. Then started my own research group at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and was there 2002 – 2008 before moving to the Sanger Institute.
Current Job:

Run a research group working with human malaria parasites, trying to come up with new ways to treat and prevent disease.

My Typical Day:

On any given day it includes talking data with my team, answering e-mails, writing papers or grants, giving talks, sitting in meetings, reading papers, and planning experiments – keeps me on my toes.
What I'd do with the prize money:

Cover the travel expenses of schools so that they can come visit the Sanger Institute where I work – most of the human genome was sequenced here, and there is a great program where schools can visit and learn about genetics and DNA.

Julian Rayner