Joseph Terwilliger Email & Phone Number

The result of many generations of inbreeding in Northern Appalachia (yes, I am White Trash!), since my ancestors arrived there in the 1600s, my first career was as a fur trapper, selling raccoon pelts and skunk essence to raise $4000 to buy my first tuba, forming the basis of my second career. After receiving my Bachelor of Music degree in tuba performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, I decided to go to graduate school in science at Columbia University because they paid me to go to school in NYC, so I could pursue my music career in the big city without needing to flip burgers. To my complete and utter amazement, I actually finished the Ph.D. program before people realized I really didn't know anything, and then went on to the only possible career available for a person with no marketable skills - academics. After a postdoc at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in Oxford, I returned to New York and took a day job at Columbia University where I remain as Associate Professor of Neuroscience in the departments of Psychiatry, Genetics & Development, and the Columbia Genome Center. In the early 2000s, I was a visiting "Finland Distinguished Professor" of Genomic Epidemiology (whatever that actually means). The fact that Finns thought I was "distinguished" says more about Finland than it says about me... As far as music goes, I still freelance in New York, playing tuba and cimbasso, competing in competitive eating contests (came in second place in my one and only appearance in Nathan's hot dog eating contest in 1997), consulting the Finnish UN Mission on Sámi language poetry, refereeing powerlifting contests, acting as a licensed 'Athlete Agent' in the State of New York, and most recently impersonating Abraham Lincoln at trendy Manhattan nightclubs. And recently I have taught human genetics in Pyongyang and helped Dennis Rodman visit the DPRK.

Listed skills include Tuba, Human Genetics, North Korean, Cimbasso, and 36 others.