Charles Rice grew up in California. His father was an insurance adjuster and his mother a housewife. He intended to be veterinarian, so he entered University of California, Davis where he majored in zoology while there he worked for Dennis Barrett and spent summers at Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory. He loved Spanish language and literature; after graduation he traveled in Latin America before he returned to be a teaching assistant for the Physiology Course at Woods Hole.

For graduate school Rice decided on the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he worked in James Strauss’ lab on RNA viruses. He continued in that lab as a postdoc, collaborating with Henry Huang on Sindbis virus and beginning to work on the yellow fever virus vaccine strain.

After a mini sabbatical with Lynn Dalgarno in Australia, Rice accepted a position at Washington University in St. Louis. There he continued to collaborate with Henry Huang and Sondra Schlesinger. He had fewer administrative duties than at other institutions; and a broader swath of science and scientists. He feels he is still learning how to manage his lab, but hopes to develop his students into independent and creative thinkers. His lab continues his work in RNA viruses and has recently begun work on hepatitis C. Rice’s overall objective is to learn how to inhibit virus replication without harming the hosts.

Rice discusses the influence of Caltech. He explains his lab composition, his management style, and how his collaborations enriched his science. He loves bench work but is not so fond of administrative duties. He does not like fashionable science or having to spend so much time seeking grants and believes that the current discouraging state of funding agencies is turning away good people. He stresses importance of basic science. He may work more intensively on hepatitis C and thinks Sindbis has other uses as model system.