Academic
History When BR broke up in
1983, Greg moved back to his native Wisconsin
and attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He wasn't willing to say
goodbye to BR but he started treating the band as a hobby. But when the
administration found that he was no longer an official resident of the state of
Wisconsin (he had just spent several years as
a California
resident) he was expelled. He went back to CA where he was a resident and
started school at UCLA. In 1987 he got a master's degree at UCLA in Geology (he
previously got a BA in Anthropology and his BSc degree in Geology there too,
which was very field-oriented since he studied fossils). Then he did some field
work in several places (North, Central and South America) and by the end of
1990 transferred to Cornell University (Ithaca)
for a PhD. It'll be a Biology Ph.D, but he studies fossils. It's evolutionary
biology-paleontology. The PhD is now on hold. He still has to write his thesis
on bone tissue and take the "A" exam, which
is the exam where Greg's committee (five people) sits in a room and asks him
lots of awkward questions about bits of fossilized bones. He may do this in
1997. He was also a Teaching Assistant in the Evolutionary Biology department
at Cornell University. He taught (TAed) mainly
pre-medical students when they took a course in comparative anatomy. In 1989 he
said "I get the same good feeling from people who like BR and students who
like my teaching, but interestingly very rarely do the two ever mix". His
PhD is in Evolutionary Biology but he says he will actually be a doctor of
Zoology (it is vertebrate fossils he studies). The actual PhD is on bone tissue
and he's been said to be one of the five leading bone tissue paleontologists in
the world. He's given conferences and published at least one paper in a
scientific journal. Both his parents were professors and he also intends to be
involved in science for the rest of his life. He once said "If I could
make a million dollars with Bad Religion, I would start an institute that would
be for research on early vertebrates, that's what I study. Be able to fund
research and stuff like that". But when asked to choose, he answers
""I'd probably choose music, because it gives me a lot more freedom
to express myself."
He took his first semester off from university when they had just signed to Atlantic (so for the first time BR toured for more than
two months in a year).
The Gopher server for the Cornell phonebook had the following for Greg: name:
Gregory W Graffin / nickname: Aludensparglemein / department: Ecology and
Systematics / title: lead singer, AR McCune, advisor / project: Investigations
into the origin of bone tissue, and travelling the world whilst playing loud
aggressive music / type: student - graduate. A picture of Greg can be seen in a
board in the building of the Ecology and Statistics department of Cornell University listing all of the graduated
students in the department.
