By Chandra Shekhar

Sebastián Vélez, 33
Third-year graduate student at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University
COURTESY OF SEBASTIÁN VÉLEZ

HOMETOWN: Bayamon, Puerto Rico

WORK/RESEARCH: Vélez's research is centered on the question of why there are so many species in the world, which he hopes to answer from an island biogeographical perspective. His fieldwork takes him to the islands of the Caribbean, where he studies various species of beetles to understand if they form there or come from surrounding regions.

REPRESENTATIVE PAPER: S. Vélez, J.L. Feder, "Integrating biogeographic and genetic approaches to investigate the history of bioluminescent color alleles in the Jamaican click beetle Pyrophorus plagiophthalamus," Mol Ecol, 15:1339-1404, 2006.

GOAL: To become a tenure-track research professor in evolutionary ecology within the next five years.

KEY MOMENT: "I was building a home in Puerto Rico in 1998, and I was just putting in the windows and doors when Hurricane Georges came and took the house away. So I moved to Florida with my family and got a job as a landscaper.

"During those years in Florida I visited professors, took the GRE, and filled out applications. But even before moving to Florida, I dreamt about a career as a scientist - I just didn't know what steps to take."


"I've always been interested in the deep questions: how things are organized in the world, how species form. Did everything we see around us come to be by chance? Or is evolution a one-directional path in which if you start with the same ingredients, you will always end up at the same place?"
Sebastián Vélez


TOUGHEST CHALLENGE: "I always loved studying and learning, but I didn't know that you could feed your family and learn at the same time. That is why I wasted five years doing landscaping work."

BIGGEST INSPIRATION: Linda Roth, a Clemson University plant taxonomist, who was a long-time friend of the Vélez family and opened Sebastián's eyes to the possibilities of academia.