This news item is about: As an 8-year-old growing up in Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico, Hector Aguilar-Carreno watched the climbing tendrils of a squash plant and measured how fast the tendril circled around a neighboring twig. "I wanted to know how the plant shoot knew which way to go - and realized there must be a way for the plant to sense the twig," he says. "It got me thinking more microscopically." Aguilar-Carreno joined the College of Veterinary Medicine as an associate professor in July 2017. "Cornell is a place where we can do great things in the field of virology," he says. "It's the one of the best environments in the country - and in the world."