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Dr. Richard Morimoto, the Bill and Gayle Cook Professor of Molecular Sciences at Northwestern University, delivered this fall's Cole Lectures.

Prior to his Friday afternoon talk, 'The Stress of Misfolded Proteins in Health and Disease,' Morimoto shared a light moment with students.

'This is the first time I’ve ever been to Wabash College,' said Morimoto. 'It’s beautiful. I love this place. 1832…I was born in Chicago and went to the local schools, and the University of Chicago, but that’s a youngster compared to Wabash.'

'Being here during the academic session is very different because you get to see the students and see them in action,' Morimoto said of his Thursday evening talk. 'It was a privilege to imagine that students would come out after dinner at night for a talk. Usually, you have to drag students kicking and screaming after hours.'

'The room was filled last night and they asked great questions,' he said. 'That is an even better measure that they are curious. They boldly asked questions. It was constant. We had to stop the session because it was getting so late. The students kept asking and that’s a genuine pleasure. Their questions were as good as I would have gotten at a major scientific congress. That’s wonderful.'

'Asking questions requires a certain boldness often which students don’t have yet,' Morimoto explained. 'They think am I stupid, am I the only one thinking this way? I always tell students, you are stupid if you don’t ask questions.'

Much of Morimoto's focus is on the biology of aging.

'What is the relationship between chronological aging and biological aging,' he asked. 'We can all look at people of a particular age and notice that some of them look great and some of them don’t. Why? Are those who age at a faster rate biologically more at risk? As a scientist, I’m trying to understand the molecules. Which ones are critical in aging and which ones change?'

'Our discoveries have led us to ideas of how to detect and ultimately how to treat. My research isn’t in making people live longer. I actually want people to live long in a healthy way. If you are going to live to 100, be healthy to 100,' Morimoto said.

'You do science for pure intrinsic joy. Simple questions to understand how biology works.'

'It’s been a wonderful path,' Morimoto said of his scientific career. 'This is what we do science for. I don’t do it to say I’m going to cure a disease. You do science out of curiosity and if it leads you to some interesting opportunities, then, of course, you grab it.'

'Curiosity is something we’re all born with. All children are curious. Something happens at some point where that curiosity gets supplanted or lost, but it’s deep inside each of us.'

'The nice thing about being a scientist – at Wabash or Northwestern or anywhere else – is that you are surrounded by really talented kids,' he explained. 'That’s why I’m at a university where I work with undergraduates. I love having students. I’m no different than the faculty here. Undergraduates bring a genuine, honest curiosity, untouched. You have to find them, and give them every chance to nurture it.'

Morimoto, who was born on the North Side of Chicago and grew up near Wrigley Field, said of the Cubs, 'maybe this is the year, you know, once every century.'

'(Travel) is one of the great joys of what we do – you hear science, you meet interesting people, you ask questions, you learn, you talk wonderful things. It’s a privileged life to be a scholar, to be a scientist and to travel to interesting places. I was born in Chicago, yet every time I drive through the corn fields, it’s like a new experience. To watch the combines on either side of the road mowing down the stalks was very enjoyable,' concluded Morimoto.