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Boy, I face that almost every day. I think coming in to work and just looking at what I do and the different problems that we're facing and how to tackle those. What are the different avenues that I can go down? What are some of the different situations? And the research that we do is a driving force for the curiosity that I experience on a daily basis.

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I think that learning and advancement is just part of the makeup of us as human beings. I think that we want to grow. We grow physically, but we want to grow mentally also. For me, I am very struck by the idea of the moral progress of a society, and that the growth of these ideas comes from new notions. It also comes from innovation. It comes from introduced ideas from other parts, and that makes us better and healthier as a society. I am really focused a lot on being a better society -- treating one another better – and having a civil society, having people participate in a democratic society. I think that the only way that happens is through constant progress, and you only get progress through probing and discussion and dialectic.

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I think there's two parts. One is the art of discovery, which is great; when you figure out something: "Oh, that's how that works." That's awesome. And then I think, from a macroscopic level, I believe that if we don't remain, as a species, curious, we're not going to keep moving forward. So thank goodness we aren't where we were 1,000 years ago, but I really hope we'll be further along 1,000 years from now. I think curiosity, in a lot of ways, is the engine that drives that. It's the differential voltage, if you will, that drives that forward.

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I guess partly I was born that way. Partly it was stimulated in my early childhood with a love for reading, which my mother instilled in me. I think I found the world always fascinating. And I've found my brain almost wanting to know more, wanting to understand better, wanting to discover more. And one of the great things about a university president is you have all these incredible people who are leaders in their field at your fingertips. So I get to become, certainly not an expert, but at least talk to somebody who is an expert in a field, and feel some of the vibrance and excitement they feel as they drive their particular field forward.

A lot of things make me curious. That is sort of my “disease.” One thing that I’m curious about nowadays is biography: I find myself curious about the lives of inspirational people—what hardships they faced and surmounted, what inspired them, etc.

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What makes me curious is the reward I get from the act of discovery. It just feels good, and this is, I think, how we're wired. We want to learn, we want to know. So when we see something we don't understand, we want to understand it. The steps to acquiring that understanding are very satisfying. I think it's, I want to say like a drug, but it is something that feeds you. And once you get it, you want more. So it is sort of self-perpetuating.

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I've always liked to experiment with things. I like to work with my hands. I like to observe. I like to produce, so I make things. I take things apart. I put them back together. I have a few screws extra. Actually, I do always have extra screws, so it's just the process of learning and trying to see how things work, how you make things. It's just exciting for me. And I've done that since childhood.

I'm originally from Iran -- so very limited exposure for girls sometimes. But I remember flashbacks to early ages of as young as 6 years old, I used to collect boxes, go explore and make them wet to see what happens to them, collect samples from anything and anywhere. You know: bug species, plants. And I always liked that.

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It always starts with an interest, an ability to explore, which is often catalyzed usually by an observation. Driving down the road you see something; you stop and take a look and find out something about it; get home, do a little more research, dig into it and maybe that leads to something else and a further investigation and maybe playing with something.