Members and guests of the Society, it is an honor and pleasure to introduce Kirsten Jensen, 2014 recipient of the Henry Baldwin Ward Medal. The career journey of each Ward medalist is similar: undergraduate degree, graduate school, usually a post-doctoral stint, and then finally an academic position. All have been productive in the study of parasitic organisms. And, yet, each Ward Medalist is a unique creature, and many come to the study of parasites as a result of a happy accident. Kirsten Jensen is no different in this regard.
A native of Bremen, Germany, Kirsten came of age after the fall of the Berlin Wall and attained her Vordiplom from the Universität Potsdam. Kirsten applied for a student exchange program between the University of Connecticut and the Universität Potsdam and came to the attention of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Chair Greg Anderson. Kirsten's Vordiplom was a 3-yr degree, and...