Tousled black hair frames a slightly wan face. His oxford shirt is a blue sea of wrinkles-evidence of a hastily packed suitcase. He looks so young-too young to have achieved so much. His greeting is warm. His voice, soft.
Energy fills the room.
At UT-Memphis, he was honored for work in wound healing and transplantation to the brain. As a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Gates is among an elite group of scientists studying the brain's circuitry, which ultimately could lead to treatment for such disorders as Parkinson's disease and stroke. In the 10 years since Bush's decree, scientists have moved forward with relative rapidity in brain research. With the new millennium, scientists reached a summit that provided a view of the possibilities ahead-and they saw that their work has just begun. The stint at Harvard is Gates' second postdoctoral fellowship.