291
Essays on Infinite Lifespans  
Authors
Shannon Vyff
Mother of three, studying for a Masters in Nutritional Ther-
apy, Shannon is a long-term leader for La Leche League Inter-
national.  She and her husband are members of the Caloric 
Restriction Society.  If needed, she and her family have made 
arraignments to be cryonically frozen at the Alcor Life Exten-
sion Foundation.
Michael D. West, Ph.D.
http://www.michaelwest.org
Received his B.S. degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 
in 1976, his M.S. degree in biology from Andrews University, 
and his Ph.D. degree from Baylor College of Medicine in 1989 
studying the molecular biology of cell senescence. Founder 
of Geron Corporation of Menlo Park, California and later 
Origen Therapeutics of South San Francisco, California. He is 
currently Chairman of the Board of Origen. He has extensive 
academic and business experience in age-related degenerative 
disease, telomerase molecular biology, and human embryonic 
stem cells.
Brian Wowk, Ph.D.
http://www.21cm.com/
Physicist, cryobiologist, and Senior Scientist at 21st Century 
Medicine, Inc., in Rancho Cucamonga, California, a com-
pany  specializing  in  low  temperature  preservation  of  tissue 
and  organs  for  medical  applications.  His  current  interests 
include  the  design  of  molecules  that  specifically  bind  and 
inhibit growing ice crystals (ice blockers), and the physics 
and engineering issues of banking transplantable organs. Dr. 
Wowk is one of the few scientists in the world that are directly