Craig Hunter received his BS (chemistry) in 1984 from the University of Oregon where he also began his research career in the Institute of Molecular Biology where he studied protein sorting in yeast with Dr. Tom Stevens. As a graduate student (Ph.D. 1990) with Dr. Bill Wood at the University of Colorado, Boulder, he investigated the genetics of sex determination in the nematode C. elegans. He continued his studies with C. elegans, investigating mechanisms of pattern formation in the early embryo as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Cynthia Kenyon at the University of California, San Francisco. In these studies he was introduced to the mysteries of RNAi. In 1997 he joined the faculty of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University, Cambridge, rising to Professor in 2004. His Harvard laboratory continues to investigate mechanisms of pattern formation in the early C. elegans embryo as well as systemic RNAi, whereby dsRNA travels from cell to cell to spread gene-specific silencing information to the entire animal and its progeny.