On first impression, Glenn McGee defies the normal expectations of one of the nation's most renowned bioethicists.
Songs such as Warren G's Regulator play from his computer, and a quick glimpse around his office reveals other oddities such as a The Matrix: Revolutions poster hanging right next to the numerous plaques and awards he has received.
He attributes his love for rap and hip hop (but not R&B;) to his days as an undergraduate at Baylor University, where he worked as a disc jockey.
"I'm also a bit of a risky sport buff," he says with a grin. He enjoys skiing and other extreme sports.
"Glenn redefined the term 'no fear' as he went down a black diamond slope at full speed," says John Kwon, an editor of the American Journal of Bioethics -- a publication that McGee founded -- in an e-mail.
However, this affinity for extreme sports has not always played out in his favor. On his most recent skiing trip in Vermont, he fell and broke his wrist.
Though he may need some pointers on skiing technique, McGee needs no help when it comes to bioethics, his true passion.
In fact, his accomplishments and projects have "defined some of the fundamental questions in the field today," says Paul Root Wolpe, a professor of Psychiatry and one of McGee's co-workers.
According to Director of the Center for Bioethics Art Caplan, McGee was hired nine years ago for four reasons: his energetic and lively personality; his research on genetics, which "seemed exciting, interesting and important"; his grasp on the potential of the Internet and his "interest in bridging the gap of public policy."
"You don't find many academic philosophers that have that set of skills," Caplan adds.
Both his grasp of the potential of the Internet and his desire to reach the public are readily apparent in what McGee considers his greatest achievement: the American Journal of Bioethics.
The journal recently won the Best New Journal award from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals.
He is proud of the journal "not because I think it's the best journal in the field, but because the people that built that journal are all either undergraduates or recent graduates, and because I think that it represents the success of that model."
Another endeavor that McGee is particularly proud of is his recently published book, Beyond Genetics: Putting the Power of DNA to Work in Your Life.
In this book, he delves into current bioethical issues while also examining his own life growing up as an adopted child in Texas.
McGee says the book was "the first time I've ever really been asked to confront or actually confronted the relationship between the things that I write about and my own personal life."
Some of his other achievements include eight books and special issue journals, and over 150 published articles.
Besides his personal accomplishments in research and writing, McGee is dedicated to helping others succeed as well.
"I am a committed mentor," he writes in an e-mail.
"I find advising, and more importantly mentoring, to be both rewarding and ennobling. My students' accomplishments mean much more to me than my own."
This enthusiasm for advising and his willingness to help students has inspired many at Penn, including Kwon.
"His ability to help you steer, but not to take control, is something that I have grown to appreciate since I started working with him," writes Kwon in an e-mail.
His personable and energetic qualities, along with his more academic and scholarly characteristics, were noticed by Wolpe, who met McGee for the first time when he interviewed him for a job at Penn.
However, soon after McGee sat down, he spilled his coffee, dowsing Wolpe's inbox with the liquid.
"That's Glenn," laughs Wolpe, "incredibly smart and creative, and at the same time very human."
