“I’ve always thought of myself as a wader due to my size,” said 6’5” Bob Paine, professor emeritus in the University of Washington’s Department of Biology.  Paine is considered by many to be the founder of experimental ecology. He has produced some of the nation’s top marine biologists . He has also spent 45 years knee-deep in kelp and invertebrates on Washington State’s coast.  

Four floors up from Bob Paine’s office is U.W.’s Carl Bergstrom, an evolutionary biologist who works with computer code, not crabs and chitons. He also explores ecology – but of cells and immune systems — and he seems equally interested in the digital tools he needs to study problems at that scale. Bergstrom is a brainiac, as well as personable. Parts of him remind you of a naturalist (he rock climbs, kite surfs, and hates his cell phone).  But he’s not — at least not by today’s standards.  The future, however, might consider Bergstrom differently.  

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Scientific American - Technology