Mark P. Kamps grew up in northern New Jersey, one of four children. His father was an engineer, his mother a teacher until her children came along. Kamps's parents, of Dutch descent, belonged to the Christian Reformed Church, and religion infused the family's lives. Kamps feels that his life is now somewhat less rigidly structured than his parents' lives were, but his religion is still very important to him, his wife, and their daughter. He explains how science and religion can coexist peacefully, in his opinion, and the impact of Christian values on his own research. All four children were expected to go to Calvin College, and all did. Kamps's sisters ended up working with computers before becoming homemakers, and he attempts to explain how that happened. He says he always had a natural aptitude for math and the sciences and an unsentimental interest in animals and nature and how they work. Liking both chemistry and biology, he had a double major; he decided to pursue an academic career in biochemistry. He found the quality of education at Calvin College outstanding. Two professors, Felix Rottman from Michigan State University, and Robert Albers influenced his choice of graduate school. Kamps began his graduate career at University of California, San Diego (UCSD). There he became interested in Bartholomew Sefton's work in avian retroviruses. He had always been fascinated by human disease, especially by how cancer develops. After rotations through the labs of Russell Doolittle, Bartholomew Sefton, and Jack Kyte, he entered the Sefton lab, where he identified the ATP-binding site of SRC and discovered that oncogenic tyrosine kinases and cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase have homologous ATP-binding sites. He published in Nature. Here Kamps talks about his love of bench work; his relationship with Sefton; the need for graduate students to learn how to design experiments and do long-term planning; about identifying targets for p60SRC kinase activity; about his collaboration with John Glenney; and about ethics in science. Kamps accepted a postdoc in David Baltimore's lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked on transcription factors. He describes Baltimore's lab and its method of operation. He talks about the cloning and sequencing of the first chimeric transcription factor gene, E2A; about identifying oncogenes and their function; about factors that contributed to Kamps's discovery of E2A-Pbx1; and about how the discovery of a new gene furthered Kamps's scientific career. Next Kamps accepted a position at UCSD. He describes his startup package and subsequent funding. He delves into how he remains competitive in a competitive research environment, as well as into the advantages and disadvantages of scientific competition. He treats his graduate students well and tries to impress upon them the importance of scientific pedigree in gaining a position in academia. He talks about his plans for future research involving E2A-Pbx1 and the relevance of biological model systems in understanding human disease. Kamps reasserts his fascination with learning the mechanisms of carcinogenesis. Kamps prefers basic research to clinical and believes that it is important to have a diversity of projects in a lab. He talks about funding in general at UCSD and about his own funding, specifically the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Science scholarship; the elements of an ideal research environment; gender issues in science; working with students in the lab; and the importance of advancing science literacy. He concludes his interview by explaining how he attempts to balance family life with life in the lab.