After his postdoctoral research grant was canceled, Lenski began to look tentatively at other options. With one child and a second on the way, Lenski attended a seminar about using specific types of data in an actuarial context—the same type of data he had worked with as a graduate student. Lenski collected a business card from the speaker, thinking he might be able to make use of his background in a new career.

"But then, as it sometimes does—and I was very lucky—the tide turned," Lenski told Quanta Magazine in his high-rise office at Michigan State University. "We got the grant renewed, and soon thereafter, I started getting faculty offers."

Lenski, a professor of microbial ecology at Michigan State, is best known for his work on what's known as the long-term evolution experiment.