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Evan Skowronski ’87
2012 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient Halfway through his M.D.-Ph.D. program at Loma Linda University in San Bernardino County, Evan Skowronski was sitting in a lab in the wee hours of the morning waiting for some key data to develop.
media outlets. Twenty-two people were infected; five died. The ensuing investigation became one of the largest and most complex in the history of law enforcement, according to the FBI.
“I was looking at some x-ray film, remembering my boss speculating that the results might be this way or that way. I looked at the data on the film and he was wrong on all accounts. The results were completely unexpected. All over the world, different research groups were studying this problem, thinking about it a certain way, and at that moment, it was like 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning, I was the only one who knew what was going on.”
Skowronski was put in charge of launching a new and largely untested surveillance lab to search out other anthrax letters and threats. “We were handling real, live samples of anthrax,” he said. “It was scary – a lot more dangerous than what I was used to. I couldn’t tell my friends or family where I was or what I was doing. It was probably the worst three weeks of my life.”
For Skowronski, it was a life-changing moment. He quit medical school to pursue science full-time, a choice that has taken the 43-year-old La Jolla Country Day School graduate (Class of 1987) around the world, from the jungles of Asia and Africa to the urban cores and suburban expanses of the American east coast. The latter may be the scariest place he’s ever been. In 2001, Skowronski was a biologist with an already impressive résumé. He has worked in both private industry and for the government, including time spent as a production sequencing manager in the monumental Human Genome Project, responsible for helping map chromosome 19. One Sunday, he got a call from an acquaintance asking if he could fly to Washington, D.C. His help was needed. It was hush-hush. Details would be provided later. Skowronski agreed, and flew into a crisis. One week after the 9/11 attacks, letters containing anthrax spores – a deadly bacterium – had been mailed to the offices of two U.S. senators and several news
T O RREY 3 6 0 VI EWBOOK
The labs and surveillance effort proved a huge success, eventually evolving into BioWatch, an ongoing federal program in which labs scattered throughout the country continuously monitor for indications of a biological threat. These days, Skowronski’s work is perhaps less dramatic, but arguably more profound and expansive. He is senior scientist at the Tahoe-Research Initiative, where he focuses on developing technologies and systems to monitor and assess infectious disease threats in undeveloped countries. He spends much of his time designing new methods for identifying and analyzing real and potential microbial threats to public health and national security. He also spends time, when he can, at La Jolla Country Day. “Every time I’m in town, I make a point of stopping by the school. I still keep in touch with my teachers, mentors, classmates. I’ve been a tutor there. I’ve lectured and been a substitute teacher. I can walk into Mr. Perrotti’s class. He’ll hand me the chalk and the lesson will go on without missing a beat. It was a fantastic education.”
S um mer 2012
ALUMNI REVIEW: 2012 Distinguished Alumni
ALUMNI REVIEW: 2012 Distinguished Alumni
By Scott LaFee