Mini-CV

 

Wes Ulm (J. Wesley Ulm) (Jacob Ulm)

 

- High school at T.C. Williams H.S., Alexandria, VA, 1988-1992 (class size—approx. 680)

- Lots of sleepless nights and stressing about SAT’s

- Somehow graduated valedictorian, 1992; National Merit Scholar; bunch of drugstore blue ribbons for science fairs, math and lit contests; 2-time state spelling champion; seven 5’ s on AP exams, useful for that “one year of credit” at college that nobody ever seems to be able to actually use

 

-Undergraduate studies at Duke University, 1992-1996

- Joined other gluttons for punishment in majoring in chemistry and biochemistry

- Competed with other gluttons for punishment to see who could do most all-nighters in a row (60-hour shift once—nah, I was a lightweight)

- Wound up O.K. somehow—graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa; the usual overstuffed resume lines with various prizes and who-knows-how-many volunteer stints in this, that, or the other

 

And then it gets interesting…

 

- Combined MD/PhD student at Harvard Medical School/MIT (Harvard/MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology—HST, for those who know and love it), 1996-present

- A top Jeopardy! Champion 1997-98, 5 shows, Tournament of Champions, total cash haul—approx. $65,000; unfortunately, money stashed into stock market shortly before it did the free-fall thing (you can guess what’s happened to the winnings since :(  )

- Lots more sleepless nights, pulling hair out over medical boards

- 90^th percentile on medical boards; realized that I always overstress about big exams

- Lead essay in Vision at Harvard, anthological publication, Volume VI, 2000

- Editor and author, Vision, Volume VII, 2003

- Author of gene therapy chapter in Principles of Pharmacology, textbook, 2003

- A bunch of other little awards

- Int’l 2^nd prize winner, National Neurofibromatosis Research Ideas Competition ($5,000), 2003

- Winner of Cambridge Science Foundation Research Travel Grant to Singapore Conference of International Society for Cancer Gene Therapy to present work on RNAi-based treatment modalities for drug-resistant cancers (adjunct therapy), Feb. 2004

- Thesis project on improvement and targeting of gene therapy viral vectors

 

Stupid human trick:

Can speak a dozen foreign languages.  All with a very funny accent.