Joseph Douglas Terwilliger is an American geneticist and professor of

neurobiology Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developme ...

at the

Columbia University Medical Center NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center (NYP/CUIMC), also known as the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), is an academic medical center and the largest campus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. It includes C ...

and the

New York State Psychiatric Institute The New York State Psychiatric Institute, located at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, was established in 1895 as one of the first institutions in the United States t ...

. In addition to his scientific research, he is known for accompanying retired

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player

Dennis Rodman Dennis Keith Rodman (born May 13, 1961) is an American former professional basketball player. Known for his fierce defensive and rebounding abilities, his biography on the official NBA website states that he is "arguably the best reboundin ...

on his visits to

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

, where he has said that he serves as Rodman's translator. He began his involvement in Rodman's trips to the country after winning a basketball game with him at an auction.

Education and career

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

player, Terwilliger received his bachelor's degree from the

Peabody Conservatory of Music The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University is a private conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by merchant/financier and philanthropist George Peabody (1795–1869) ...

. After receiving his bachelor's, Terwilliger moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to look for a job in music, but later found himself drawn to a graduate school program in genetics and development at

. He later recalled, "I could not believe they were actually going to pay me to go to grad school. In music you have to teach classes just to pay your tuition, and then you have to get a job to pay the rent. While in science they actually were going to pay me, which seemed like an unbelievable scam at the time." He decided to enroll in a graduate program at Columbia in genetics because he felt that, since he had been a music major, the alternative would probably be working at

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

; he later discovered he had a natural interest in statistical genetics. He went on to receive his Ph.D. from the

Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhattan ...

in 1993. He then received a Hitchings-Elion Fellowship from the

Burroughs Wellcome Fund The Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) is an American non-profit medical research organization that provides funding for biomedical research, STEM education, and areas of career development for scientists. Since 1970, it has been headquartered in Nor ...

, which he spent working with Mark Lathrop at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. In July 2013, he began teaching a human evolutionary genetics class at

Pyongyang University of Science and Technology Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) is North Korea's first privately funded university. It is founded, operated, and partly funded by associations and people outside the country. PUST was jointly planned and constructed by forc ...

(PUST) in North Korea. He still teaches at PUST as of October 2017. He has an

Erdős–Bacon number A person's Erdős–Bacon number is the sum of one's Erdős number—which measures the "collaborative distance" in authoring academic papers between that person and Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős—and one's Bacon number—which represents ...

of 6, having appeared in

Dennis Rodman's Big Bang in Pyongyang ''Dennis Rodman's Big Bang in Pyongyang'' is a 2015 documentary film produced and directed by Colin Offland, written by Matthew Baker, and narrated by Matt Cooper. The film follows retired professional basketball player Dennis Rodman on his miss ...

. He also sang additional vocals on the 2020 album

Killection ''Killection'' is the tenth studio album by the Finnish hard rock band Lordi. It was released on 31 January 2020, via AFM Records. The band stated that the album is considered a 'fictional compilation' and would contain songs you would normally ...

by Finnish heavy metal band

Lordi Lordi () is a Finnish hard rock/ heavy metal band, formed in 1992 by the band's lead singer, songwriter and costume maker, Mr Lordi (Tomi Petteri Putaansuu). In addition to their melodic metal music, Lordi are also known for wearing monster ma ...

.(2020). "''Killection'' liner notes." In ''Killection'' D booklet AFM.

References

External links

Faculty page
* Living people American geneticists Statistical geneticists Peabody Institute alumni Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni Human geneticists Columbia University faculty American tubists 21st-century tubists Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-academic-bio-stub