Polly Matzinger - Early Years

Early Years

Polly Matzinger took to science from an unusual background career path which included stints as a Playboy Bunny at a Playboy Club in Denver, a bar waitress, a jazz musician, a carpenter and dog trainer. In 1974 Polly Matzinger had dropped in and out of college for years and worked at various jobs before ending up waitressing at a bar frequented by faculty from the University of California, at Davis and here she met Professor Robert Schwab, the head of the University's wildlife program who noticed her talent and persuaded her to take to science.

She eventually went to the University of California, San Diego for her Ph.D., did post-doctoral work at the University of Cambridge, and was a scientist at the Basel Institute for Immunology before heading to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.