When many people think of a brilliant scientist they picture an individual toiling in an underground lab cooking up weird experiments on a Bunsen burner. They imagine someone with an anemic complexion who has never seen the light of day. Those people have never met Chris Murawsky.
Although Murawsky, newly conferred with a doctorate from Cambridge University, certainly is brainy, he's also a passionate hockey player and a Big Brother.
"Chris is very down-to-earth, the most uneggheaded person you've ever met," said his mom, Eileen. While she's understandably proud of his academic accomplishments, the Gibsons woman is just as pleased with his achievements outside the world of academia.
"Chris just spent the past weekend snorkelling with his new little brother. (The boy was assigned to Murawsky from the Big Brother organization.) They had a great time," Eileen said.
Home for the scientist is now San Diego, Calif. He is conducting cancer research at the world-renowned Salk Institute in the coastal city. "I am interested in understanding how a cell goes from a normal, happy state to a deranged, cancerous state," Murawsky said. "My research focuses on trying to understand the molecular mechanisms of what goes wrong in the transition from a normal cell to a cancer cell."
"In addition to Chris being asked to research at the Salk Institute, he was awarded a research grant from the Welcome Trust in England," his mother said.
The grant is an honour bestowed on only 10 people in the world each year. The award usually goes only to British citizens and is rarely given for cancer research. The small-town boy is definitely making a name for himself in scientific circles. Originally from Humboldt, Sask., Murawsky moved to Gibsons in Grade 10. He graduated from Elphinstone Secondary School and then in succession he went to the University of B.C., McGill University and Cambridge. Murawsky managed the $30,000 annual tuition at the expensive English university with help from a Natural Sciences Research Council Scholarship and a Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholarship. The young genius isn't the only person with a scientific bent in his family. Younger brother, David, has been studying biology at UBC. And dad, Laddie, was a biology teacher at Elphinstone until his retirement in 2002.
But science isn't the be-all-and-end-all for the former Coaster. He's always been a hockey player. One of the highlights of his life at Cambridge was the annual game against long-time rival Oxford. "He's always been the organizer for teams he's played with," his mom said.
Just to keep his stick in the game, Murawsky is helping coach the defense players of the University of San Diego hockey team.
And in his spare time Murawsky is a bit of a sports nut. He's tried everything from hiking and skiing to soccer and cricket. One of his best friends is Chicago Cubs pitcher and Gibsons native Ryan Dempster. "From the time he was little, Chris was always a very curious person, wanting to go and see and do," Eileen shared.
It wouldn't appear much has changed.
