Dr. Theo Dreher earned a degree in Agricultural Sciences and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Melbourne in Australia. After 6 years of postdoctoral work, he began an Assistant Professor position at OSU in 1987. His research focused on the molecular biology of viruses and on the genomics of cyanobacteria that produce toxic blooms in lakes and reservoirs. Dr. Dreher served as the Chair of the Department of Microbiology for 10 years. He retired at the end of 2019, although some research remains ongoing. The talk will describe how a career can take unexpected turns and lead to work in a different field of study and in a different continent and country.