I was born and raised in Chicagoland. I obtained a BA with Distinction in Biology from Carleton College in 1978, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1984, working under the tutelage of Professor Timothy C. Hall. There I studied mechanisms of brome mosaic virus RNA replication including the first steps in RNA synthesis and the mechanism by which many positive strand RNA viruses synthesize mRNAs. From 1984 to 1988, I was a research scientist in the laboratory of Drs. Wayne L. Gerlach and Peter M. Waterhouse at the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry in Canberra, Australia., where I sequenced the RNA genome of barley yellow dwarf virus and the satellite RNA of cereal yellow dwarf virus. Since joining the faculty at Iowa State University in September 1988, I have focused my efforts on: 1) Non-canonical translation mechanisms used by plant viruses, 2) Replication of satellite RNAs, 3) Interactions of plant viruses with their aphid vectors, 4) Viruses of aphids and honey bees, and 5) Diversity and evolution of luteoviruses and their relatives.