Peggy Mason grew up in the Washington DC area and worked in taxidermy at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History during middle and high school. She received her BA in Biology in 1983 and her PhD in Neuroscience in 1987, both from Harvard. After postdoctoral work with Howard Fields at UCSF, she joined the faculty at the University of Chicago in 1992 where she is now Professor of Neurobiology. After 20 years looking at the cellular mechanisms of pain modulation, Dr Mason turned her energies to the biology of empathy and helping behavior in rats. Dr Mason wrote a textbook for medical students, Medical Neurobiology, now in its second edition. Dr Mason directed the Neurobiology graduate program for 10 years, was the inaugural director of the undergraduate Neuroscience major, and currently directs the undergraduate minor in Science Communication and Public Discourse. She has received numerous teaching awards, including the Quantrell Award, the nation’s oldest prize for undergraduate teaching.