A childhood curiosity turned into a passion that is quickly taking Wayne State College alumnus Kyle Varon to places that many others aspire to go.

Varon, a 2011 WSC graduate, spoke last Friday to biology majors in their Senior Seminar class in Connell.

The first slide of his presentation was titled “N-terminus of Dictyostelium discoideum dUTPase.”

What that mouthful means is the investigation of slime mold. This was what his research consisted of for his thesis when he attended graduate school at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Now Varon works on vaccine development for Zoetis in Lincoln. Zoetis is a company that develops animal health-medicines and vaccines for veterinarians and livestock farmers.

As a kid, Varon was always curious with the world around him. “I was always trying to figure out, ‘hey, what’s making that work?’” Varon said. This drove him towards science.

The strong science program and the size of the college at WSC intrigued Varon to become a biology major here. When at WSC, Varon was a RA for three years.

“There are so many great memories of Wayne,” Varon said.

His advice to current biology majors?

“Take advantage of the learning resources here at Wayne, because you have great professors and great facilities,” Varon said. “They’re truly dedicated to instructing and educating people about science.”

When he was at WSC, Dr. Doug Christensen and Dr. Shawn Pearcy pushed Varon towards graduate school. He went directly to UNL to study genetics, cell, and molecular biology (GCMB). Focusing in genetics, he took three years to complete the program.

When presenting his research to the room full of undergrads, Varon had the complete attention and respect of the room.