# @uscdornsife on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/BiX_2VhDv9V
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/13647893-uscdornsife-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/cad599188a.jpg
- **Posted:** 2018-05-05T00:04:06.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** USC Dornsife (@USCDornsife) — https://gondola.cc/USCDornsife

## Caption

It’s #FacultyFriday! Ray Stevens has been called “one of the world’s most influential scientific minds,” but he’s a lot more than that. The Provost Professor and director of the Bridge Institute at the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience is a determined adventurer and mountain climber, a devoted dad, and apparently a poor language student! Learn more about Ray from the interview below and swipe through for photos of his mountain-climbing adventures.
⛰
What are your hobbies outside of academia? 🏔When I was in my early 20s, I saw a show about running across the Sahara desert and climbing the tallest mountains in the world. I decided I wanted to do both. So in 2010, I ran 156 miles across the Sahara desert in 6 days, and I am currently climbing the 7 tallest mountains in the 7 continents with my 2 sons. We have finished 4, will climb Vinson Massif in Antarctica this December, and that just leaves Everest and Danali. We will attempt Everest from the China side to avoid traffic jams. 🌄
One surprising thing about yourself?
📚
I am unable to learn a new language but have not given up. I grew up in a French-speaking region of Maine and tried to learn French. My wife’s family is from Guadalajara, Mexico, and she speaks Spanish to the kids, and I told her I would learn Spanish before and after our wedding, and after the kids were born, with no success. I have been taking Chinese lessons for the last 7 years and can somewhat speak to cab drivers, but that is it. After 40 years of trying and 3 different languages, I am convinced I lack a language gene. (Some of my USC colleagues believe I also struggle with my native English language.) 📚📝
What would you like people to know about your academic field?
🔬
Structural biology is going through a new and very exciting growth phase. Many people think that, since the determination of DNA’s structure in 1957, we have learned most of what is needed, but structural biology is now expanding into whole cells, organs and someday the entire human body. ... Long live structural biology!
🔬
#facultyfriday #uscmichelson #usc #uscdornsife #dornsifelife uscedu uscbridgeinstitute

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usc, uscdornsife, dornsifelife, facultyfriday, uscmichelson

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