Meet This Issue's Writers

As a resident of Hong Kong, Jane Parry covered the SARS outbreak as a journalist and experienced it personally as she shopped in a surgical mask. On page 34 she writes about vaccine development for SARS and the next emerging virus in Asia, avian flu. "If the next flu pandemic starts in southern China, as scientists expect, Hong Kong will be one of the first places to be affected," she says.

Engineering was a way for Aristides Patrinos to continue his education, but he always knew that the life sciences would claim him. Now director for biological and environmental research in the Office of Science at the US Department of Energy, he continues to promote the role of engineering and the physical sciences in biology as genomics becomes a driving force in applications meant to advance the DOE's goals. He talks about these goals on page 20.

Naomi Balaban, an ...