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 Alondra Nelson, Science | 01.15.2026
One of the most interventionist approaches to technology governance in the United States in a generation has cloaked itself in the language of deregulation. In early December 2025, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to announce a forthcoming “One...
By Daphne O. Martschenko and Julia E. H. Brown, Hastings Bioethics Forum | 01.14.2026
There is growing concern that falling fertility rates will lead to economic and demographic catastrophe. The social and political movement known as pronatalism looks to combat depopulation by encouraging people to have as many children as possible. But not just...
By Danny Finley, Bill of Health | 01.08.2026
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a unique funding structure among federal scientific and health agencies. The industries it regulates fund nearly half of its budget. The agency charges companies a user fee for each application
...
By George Janes, BioNews | 01.12.2026
A heart attack patient has become the first person to be treated in a clinical trial of an experimental gene therapy, which aims to strengthen blood vessels after coronary bypass surgery.
Coronary artery bypass surgery is performed to treat...