Profile of Stephen Beverley

Abstract

During high school, Stephen M. Beverley attended a Science Day event at the California Institute of Technology. As he explored research laboratories, he felt that the entire world of science was open to him. “It just seemed like a candy shop,” he says. Beverley’s inquisitive pursuit of scientific truth has led him to study the factors that make the parasite Leishmania a devastating human scourge. Now, as Chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Beverley, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, investigates how viruses influence Leishmania and how those viruses may be brought under control. Stephen Beverley. Image courtesy of E. Holland Durando (Washington University, St. Louis). Beverley and family. Image courtesy of Stephen Beverley. Beverley was born in southern California, but his family’s roots reach into eastern Kentucky. His father earned a degree in engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, was the first in his family to graduate from college, and moved the family to California to pursue a career in aerospace. Beverley recalls that his father was unafraid to try risky approaches to a problem before arriving at a solution. “The ‘plan A, plan B, and so on until you got it right’ mentality served me well in science, where my mentors were similarly minded,” Beverley says. Beverley’s parents and teachers allowed him to explore and pursue his own interests. Beverley felt that his imagination had no bounds. “Looking back at things,” he says, “I didn't realize how special that really was.” Inspired by his Science Day visit, Beverley entered the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1969. He worked in several biology laboratories, including the laboratory of future DNA sequencing pioneer Leroy Hood. Beverley’s laboratory work was so …