John finished his doctorate in our lab in 1989 working on the histidine decarboxylase operon of Lactobacillus 30a.  He moved to Houston and was married Diane Maia (who worked in Joanne Ravel's lab from 1983 to 1985) then

completed a brief post-doc at the Baylor College of Medicine.  In 1991 John and Diane moved to California where she completed a residency in Pathology and he became a research associate in Peter Parham's laboratory in the

department of Cell Biology at Stanford University.

  In 1994, John and Diane moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina where John ran the oligonucleotide synthesis lab for the Lineberger Cancer Center at UNC.  Diane became a fellow in hematopathology, then a faculty member in the

Dept.of Pathology at the UNC School of Medicine.  While in Chapel Hill, John's interest in aviation got a little bit out of hand.  He left UNC to become a flight instructor at the Chapel Hill Flying Club, a job that eventually led to a position flying for Ram Air Freight in Raleigh.

  John and Diane have lived in Norfolk, Virginia since June, 2000.  Diane is in private practice with a group of pathologists who run the laboratories at three local hospitals.  They have a son, Raymond, who was born in October

2000.  Until recently, John was employed as a pilot by Piedmont Airlines, a division of US Airways that serves the East coast from Toronto to Miami.

The airline business lost much of its glamour after 9/11/01, and after enduring pay cuts, increasingly demanding schedules, and far too much intimate contact with employees of the Transportation Security Agency (better known as those smiling, touchy folks at the airport security checkpoints), John decided to leave Piedmont and spend more time at home

with Diane and Ray.  Current projects include some light remodeling around the house and construction of a wooden sea kayak to take advantage of the waterways in and around Norfolk.