Steve Strauss

Abstract

I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, a part of New York City. There were not many plants in my neighbourhood, and most of the trees were in poor health. This motivated me to become interested in trees and how they worked, an interest that grew as a teenager through hiking and backpacking in the Adirondack Mountains of upper New York State with friends. During those forays, I noticed that many trees out in the forest were suffering too, including from acid rain, ozone pollution, invasive pests, and other maladies. Therefore, I became determined to 'save the world' through ecological sciencewhich over timedue to my wandering mind, broad interests, and opportunismtransformed into tree genetics and recombinant biotechnology.