{"574151":{"#nid":"574151","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Meet Will Ratcliff, One of the Brilliant 10","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EPopular Science\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E has named \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.ratclifflab.biology.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EWilliam C. Ratcliff\u003C\/a\u003E, an assistant professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.biosci.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E, one of its \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/man-who-solves-mysteries-evolution\u0022\u003EBrilliant 10 for 2016\u003C\/a\u003E. The list is how the magazine \u201chonors the brightest young minds reshaping science, engineering, and the world.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERatcliff is an evolutionary biologist. \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.cos.gatech.edu\/hg\/item\/568941\u0022\u003EHe studies how multicellular clusters form from single cells and how the clusters become sophisticated through evolution\u003C\/a\u003E. His work has been featured in \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.quantamagazine.org\/20151103-snowflake-yeast-multicellularity\/\u0022\u003EQuanta Magazine\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.ratclifflab.biology.gatech.edu\/index_htm_files\/sabweek020915.pdf\u0022\u003EScientific American\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/dn27762-one-gene-may-drive-leap-from-single-cell-to-multicellular-life#.VY1wxPlVhHw\u0022\u003ENew Scientist,\u003C\/a\u003E and other science magazines. For a fun explanation of his work, which Ratcliff gave at the 2015 Atlanta Science Festival, watch this \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bnlQLl6PD5k\u0022\u003Evideo\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn the following Q\u0026amp;A, Ratcliff talks about his work, early love for biology, and more.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat is your research about?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEvolutionary biologists study how organisms change over time. My niche is understanding the origin of complex life, specifically how multicellular organisms can evolve from single cells.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMulticellularity evolved on Earth many times for different groups, from slime molds to animals. This evolutionary step occurred long ago and has been hard to study, largely because biologists haven\u2019t had good \u2018hands on\u2019 model systems of early multicellular organisms and their actual unicellular ancestors. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn our lab, we do evolutionary time travel in a test tube, by creating new multicellular organisms, using yeast and algae, in a way that\u2019s simple but which we can examine with huge precision, using all the tools of biology, as well as mathematics.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe\u2019re not trying to explain what happened historically. Rather, we\u2019re trying to show how it can happen in principle. We want to understand how single-cell organisms evolve to form groups and how those groups evolve to become more complex. We\u2019re interested in how the geometry of cellular clusters influences the outcome of evolution, tipping the balance between cellular cooperation and conflict, and how cells lose their Darwinian autonomy, evolving from individual organisms into parts of a new organism. These are fundamental principles that should be broadly applicable.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat has been the most exciting time in your research life so far?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESetting up a new lab in Georgia Tech is unquestionably the most exciting so far. When you start a new lab, you have this war chest of startup money. You can buy the lab equipment you could just dream of before. You have resources to blow the lid off the constraints you previously had. You can hire people to do cool stuff. It\u2019s like winning a lottery.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI would have had fun starting a lab anywhere, but unique to Tech is the collaborative opportunities I\u2019ve had here. About a year after I started, I met \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.physics.gatech.edu\/user\/peter-yunker\u0022\u003EPeter Yunker\u003C\/a\u003E, a physicist who works with colloidal particles and soft matter. He had ideas for studying multicellularity through a physical lens that absolutely blew my mind. We now have students working together on projects, and my research has taken a totally new path.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlso, \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/biosci.gatech.edu\/people\/sam-brown\u0022\u003ESam Brown\u003C\/a\u003E was hired shortly after I arrived. Sam is a mathematical microbiologist. Working with Sam has opened lots of doors into integrating modeling more explicitly in our work.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOver lunch a year and a half ago, \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/biosci.gatech.edu\/people\/brian-hammer\u0022\u003EBrian Hammer\u003C\/a\u003E and I decided to do a project together, and now we have a paper in review examining the ecological and evolutionary consequences of \u2018hand-to-hand\u2019 combat \u2013 obviously bacteria don\u2019t have hands, but it\u2019s similar \u2013 in bacteria.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDid you have early life experiences that paved the way for you to be where you are now?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI\u2019ve always thought of myself as a science geek and a biology nerd. My earliest memories are of playing with ladybugs swarming up a tree when I was two years old. I did a science fair project with yeast when I was six years old. I\u2019m still working with yeast cells now. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI\u2019ve always been interested in the lives of living things. My parents played a huge role in fostering that interest. My brother and I grew up in Berkeley, Calif. I had a vegetable garden in the backyard, and my dad built me a greenhouse where I grew orchids.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe also have family property on the coast near Mendocino, which my great-grandfather bought almost 100 years ago. As kids, we spent months at a time there, running around the woods, like Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer poking around the beach and hiking way up through the forest for hours at a time. We occupied ourselves by poking our noses into the workings of living organisms. We wondered how all these things were changing from day to day. How did they deal with changing weather? What were they eating? As my dad says, \u201cBoredom is the crucible of creativity\u201d, but I don\u2019t really remember being bored.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EIf you couldn\u2019t be a scientist, what would you have done professionally?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI had become an avid stock trader toward the end of high school. As a college freshman I had to choose between economics and biology. I decided to stick with biology, thinking it would be more fun. That was a good call.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI\u2019d also enjoy computer programing or big-data analytics. When I learned coding, it was almost like a drug. You can do so much, so fast, and writing code is like playing a 3D crossword puzzle. Had I learned it earlier, I wouldn\u2019t have been a bench scientist.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhen you were thinking where to settle after your postdoc, why did you choose Tech?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPartly, because Atlanta was a place my wife would move to.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhat really drew me to Tech was the abundance of supersmart, nerdy people. The average Tech undergrad knows how to code. Many of them want to become doctors, but they also know calculus and (the programming language) Python.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI wanted to surround myself with bright people who are quantitative. Plus, it\u2019s nice that the College of Sciences is so interdisciplinary, that our school values collaboration, and that campus is small enough that you run into people from far-flung disciplines.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EIn your encounters with students at Tech, what has surprised you about them?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThey are so good! Their desire and ability to work hard, their interest in the material is way up \u2013 75% of my students are as good as the top 10-15% of those I\u2019ve taught previously.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat about your job do you like the least? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s the sheer number of different things we have to do as professors. Our time is split into so many little bins. I miss having that open space to think broadly and deeply about science.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat\u2019s something about yourself that\u2019s not obvious to your colleagues?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEveryone assumes that I\u2019m laid back because I\u2019m an outgoing person and pretty happy, but I\u2019m usually running around at a half jog and trying to get a million things done.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI like to play music \u2013 guitar and ukulele \u2013 to relax. I picked up the ukelele when my daughter was born because it\u2019s smaller and quieter, and you can play it with a baby on your lap. I play a lot of bluegrass. I also garden and raise chickens; we harvest five eggs a day on average.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat bit of wisdom would you like to share to incoming freshmen?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI would tell them to study the things that they think are fun and cool and don\u2019t be afraid to get their quantitative game on. Don\u2019t shirk the math and programming because it\u2019s going to be so valuable later.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDefinitely take classes because you think they\u2019ll be cool because ultimately it\u2019s your own interests that motivate and drive you.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlso, find a lab early on if you\u2019re interested in research. One of the main benefits of being at Tech is the opportunity to do primary research and interface with faculty, postdocs, and grad students. But this amazing opportunity comes only if you seek it. Find a lab you like in your first few years, and if you like it, by the end of school you\u2019ll have a deep well of experience that you wouldn\u2019t otherwise have, and you will have way more opportunities as a result. Nobody writes a better letter of recommendation than a professor who has known you for years!\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat places do you want to visit that you haven\u2019t visited yet?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EVietnam, because my wife\u2019s family is out there and I haven\u2019t been there yet. Cambodia would be really cool to see. I\u2019d love to see an active volcano, any one of them! South Africa is another choice because it is a refuge for African plant diversity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI\u2019m also an amateur photographer, and after getting more into night photography, I would love to visit somewhere where I could take great photos of the Milky Way without light pollution, like the Mojave Desert.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWith whom from history would you like to join for dinner?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI know this is clich\u00e9, but I would love to meet Charles Darwin. He laid out so much of the field 150 years ago, and it would be fun to just blow his mind. \u0026nbsp;I\u2019d love to update him about how the field has developed, how generally well-supported his ideas are, and how cool the nitty-gritty mechanistic details of evolution are. Dinner might stretch on a bit late, though.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Popular Science picks School of Biological Sciences assistant professor for its annual list of bright young people changing the world"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EPopular Science picks School of Biological Sciences assistant professor for its annual list of bright young people changing the world\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Popular Science picks School of Biological Sciences assistant professor for its annual list of bright young people changing the world"}],"uid":"32896","created_gmt":"2016-09-08 10:02:27","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:22:33","author":"Matt Barr","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-09-08T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2016-09-08T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"570101":{"id":"570101","type":"image","title":"William C. 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Ratcliff"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA. Maureen Rouhi\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDirector of Communications\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECollege of Sciences\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["maureen.rouhi@cos.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}