Jose V. Lopez

http://www.science.fau.edu/biology/faculty/lopez.htm

I received my BS in Applied Biology from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1984, and then went on to do a Masters degree under J. Herbert Taylor at Florida State University in Tallahassee. It was a privilege to work under Dr Taylor, one of the early pioneers of molecular biology. Afterwards, I worked as a research technician at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, whereupon I serendipitously stumbled upon what would be the passion of my professional career - molecular evolution. I became a PhD student of Dr. Stephen O'Brien at the Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center, where I began molecular evolution studies. After graduating, I wanted to apply evolutionary and systematic concepts and techniques to marine systems, so I was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, under Dr. Nancy Knowlton, where I studied coral sibling species (Montastraea annularis). I did a second postdoc with Dr. Shirley Pomponi at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution (HBOI), where I have stayed on as the resident molecular biologist, studying marine sponges and microbial symbionts in order to discover the sources of bioactive natural products for biomedical research.