Since I occasionally post on the message board and have started to lurk on the Chat room, I thought I should make a homepage in case people wonder about me (and there are plenty who do). I got started when I was very young (6 or 7) with fluorite cleavage fragments and the ever present pyrite chunks. I grew up in Franklin county Pennsylvania (about 20 miles from where I now live) so there weren't too many collecting trips, but I did find the occasional quartz crystal and furnace slag from the old iron smelters. I went to the Pennsylvania State University in the late 1970's to get a BS in Biochemistry. While there, I saw my first minerals in a museum and wonder of wonders, the occasional mineral show. I was starting to get hooked.....but not yet landed. It was when I went to Michigan State University in the 1980's to get my Ph.D. in biochemistry that I saw the Copper Country bounty and the Petosky stones. I was a goner at that point. I am interested in everything I see....even the unloved black Mn oxide minerals!!!! I have a young son, Alec (9 years old as of 2008), who is starting to get the bug as well. My wife likes them, but she is not a collector. Still, she tolerates my weakness, and that is close enough. I have been doing AIDS research for the last 20 years and I am currently working for the HIV Drug resistance program (HIV-DRP) for the National Cancer Institute at Frederick Maryland (NCI-Frederick).