Biology researcher’s on a roll
On the second floor of Harvard’s Biological Labs, next to signs warning of biohazards and pointing to eyewash stations, there used to be another sign: No rollerblading. The incongruous warning was apparently directed at Florian Engert, who has been known to wheel about the otherwise sedate hallways. Now that he has been tenured as a professor of molecular and cellular biology, the prohibition has quietly vanished. Engert moves like someone accustomed to more demanding pursuits. He seems to be perpetually heading from one task to another, darting purposefully between research projects and lectures. He appears tireless and endlessly focused, yet lighthearted. The Rollerblades still sit sheepishly by the lip of his desk. Harvard is the latest stop in a series of research institutions for the young professor. Engert was born and raised near Munich, Germany, the son of a baker and a hairdresser. “My parents had very blue-collar professions,” he says. In post-World War...