Dr. Tatiana Ruiz-Bedoya acquired an appreciation of natural diversity exploring the Chicamocha Canyon near her home in Colombia. From an early age, she sought to understand nature through science. Moving through academia in Bogotá, Uppsala, Munich, Boston and Toronto, Ruiz-Bedoya accumulated prodigious experience in genetics. Her interests ranged from identifying trafficked animals through DNA to evolutionary genetics of flower colour. Ruiz-Bedoya is fascinated by the rapid evolutionary changes coming out of the arms race between pathogens and hosts. Her doctoral research in Toronto changed the way the scientific community assesses the evolution of virulence. She continues to pursue this fascination in her postdoctoral research at Harvard. Dr. Ruiz-Bedoya attributes her drive to values instilled in her by her family and relates her love for science to a sense of service towards nature and humanity. Her mentors showed that fulfillment can come from passion for research and that happy people do the best science; Ruiz-Bedoya appreciates and seeks the contentment that comes from finding time to enjoy life.