Mother had to support herself at age 18 because it was during the depression and when my grandfather lost the farm and there was no place for her; she worked as an assistant to a maid. – Peter Agre
While the lab plays an enormous role, research is also influenced by inner peace of mind and one’s family environment, depending on what stage of one’s life and career a scientist is at. – Peter Agre
My brother Jim and I spent many wonderful summers working on dairy farms in Wisconsin owned by Mom’s cousins, and as members of our local Boy Scout troop. – Peter Agre
In 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, a bill opening one half million square miles of territory in the western United States for settlement. – Peter Agre
Well, my take was people of Minnesota, these are good people. They’re in many ways more generous than other parts of the country. They’re better educated than other parts of the country. – Peter Agre
Now in the 21st century, the boundaries separating chemistry, physics, and medicine have become blurred, and as happened during the Renaissance, scientists are following their curiosities even when they run beyond the formal limits of their training. – Peter Agre
We always had lutefisk for Christmas dinner, after which Dad read from the Norwegian Bible. – Peter Agre
Dad was a chemistry professor at Saint Olaf College in Minnesota, then Oxford College in Minnesota, and a very active member of the American Chemical Society education committee, where he sat on the committee with Linus Pauling, who had authored a very phenomenally important textbook of chemistry. – Peter Agre
Every cell in our body is primarily water. But the water doesn’t just sit in the cell, it moves through it in a very organized way. The process occurs rapidly in tissues that have these aquaporins or water channels. – Peter Agre
Written in 1895, Alfred Nobel’s will endowed prizes for scientific research in chemistry, physics, and medicine. At that time, these fields were narrowly defined, and researchers were often classically trained in only one discipline. In the late 19th century, knowledge of science was not a requisite for success in other walks of life. – Peter Agre
The long, cold Minnesota winters instilled in me a fascination for exotic far off places; I aspired toward a career in tropical diseases and world health problems. – Peter Agre
It is a remarkable honor to receive a Nobel Prize, because it not only recognizes discoveries, but also their usefulness to the advancement of fundamental science. – Peter Agre
The Department of Cell Biology at Johns Hopkins was founded and directed by Tom Pollard, an engaging young scientist with remarkable energy and enthusiasm. – Peter Agre
Often times the public school teachers are ridiculed or they are made to feel inferior but this is really undeserved. – Peter Agre
In science, one should use all available resources to solve difficult problems. One of our most powerful resources is the insight of our colleagues. – Peter Agre
Johns Hopkins introduced me to two defining events in my life: commitment to biomedical research and meeting my future wife, Mary. – Peter Agre
Following my junior year in high school, I went on a camping trip through Russia in a group led by Horst Momber, a young language teacher from Roosevelt. – Peter Agre
Water is commonly regarded as the ‘solvent of life,’ since our bodies are 70% water. All other vertebrates, invertebrates, microbes, and plants are also primarily water. The organization of water within biological compartments is fundamental to life, and the aquaporins serve as the plumbing systems for cells. – Peter Agre
My goal was to develop into an independent research scientist studying clinical problems at the laboratory bench, but I felt that postgraduate residency training in internal medicine was necessary. – Peter Agre
Now a cholera epidemic was sweeping through Southeast Asia and south Asia in the early 1970s, so I started medical school and I joined a laboratory to work on this. – Peter Agre
So, my advice to young scientists is, think critically about your work; probably don’t blab unnecessarily. – Peter Agre
Until 1985, when my lab found the protein they are made of, aquaporins hadn’t yet been identified. There had been a controversy in biology for more than 100 years about how water moved through cells. – Peter Agre
