The Smiling Heretic
By Daniel S. Levine,
The Journal of Life Sciences
| 05. 16. 2008
[Quotes CGS's Marcy Darnovsky]
Reg Kelly has an infectious smile that seems to be part childlike wonder and part wise guy. The fun, though, is in listening to Kelly talk. His words come in enthusiastic bursts, coated in a Scottish accent that makes everything he says seem just a tad more colorful. And what he says conveys just enough distaste for authority to give him what amounts to, in the bureaucratic world of academia, a bad-boy edge.
But when it's suggested to the head of California's Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, or QB3, that his charm might be what makes him so effective at raising money, negotiating deals with corporate partners, and circumventing institutional barriers, he is quick to correct. "It's not charm," Kelly says. "What it is, is the belief that this is worth doing. It's the passion. We have a very clear vision, and people like that."
QB3 is one of four California Institutes for Science and Innovation established in 2000 by then-Governor Gray Davis. Headquartered at the Mission Bay campus of the University of California, San Francisco, QB3 extends across three University...
Related Articles
By Nicholas Wade, The New York Times | 04.30.2026
“J. Craig Venter” via Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC by 2.5
J. Craig Venter, a scientist and entrepreneur who raced to decode the human genome, died on Wednesday in San Diego. He was 79.
His death was announced by...
By Susan Dominus, The New York Times Magazine | 04.27.2026
Why are babies born young? The most natural phenomenon on earth is actually hard to explain — at least on a cellular level. Consider this problem: The components of conception are old. When a woman gets pregnant, she has...
By Rob Stein, NPR | 04.23.2026
The Food and Drug Administration approved the first gene therapy to restore hearing for people who were born deaf.
The decision, while only immediately affecting people born with a very rare form of genetic deafness, is being hailed as...
By Emile P. Torres, Truthdig | 04.27.2026
The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, is on a messianic mission to bring about the singularity, the moment at which artificial intelligence begins to self-improve. If AI is smart enough to build the next generation of even smarter AI...