I write about the chemistry of food and cooking. I took up this odd vocation after studies at Caltech (class of 1973) and at Yale University. After several years as a literature and writing instructor at Yale, I decided to practice what I'd been teaching, and write a book: a book about the science of everyday life.

The result was the publication in 1984 of a 680-page compendium, On Food & Cooking: The Science & Lore of the Kitchen. My timing was lucky: America and Britain were awakening to the pleasures of good food and to the diversity of world cuisines, and On Food & Cooking helped satisfy the growing hunger for information about ingredients and techniques.

I wrote it to translate technical food science into cook-friendly kitchen science, something that had not yet been done in a systematic, comprehensive way.

On Food & Cooking gradually became a standard reference, the book to which food lovers and professional chefs worldwide turn for an understanding of where our foods come from, what exactly they're made of, and how cooking transforms them into something new and delicious.

For its 20th anniversary year in 2004, I prepared an expanded fully revised and updated edition, and in 2010, Penguin Press published my practical kitchen handbook Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes.

Along the way I've contributed reviews and original research to the scientific journal Nature and have written articles for many publications. For five years, I contributed a column on science and food, "The Curious Cook," to the New York Times. Since 2010, I've been a visiting lecturer at Harvard University in the course "Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science."

In 2010 I also began work on a book about flavors, which evolved into something more wide-ranging. Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World's Smells is published by Penguin Press.

Tom Mannion, Senior Director for Student Activities and Programs and Student Affairs Instructor joined Caltech in 1993, and in 2003, he began offering the class PA-16 Cooking Basics, a survey of cooking and food science. This class is often referred to as the most popular elective on campus. Tom is beloved by Caltech students and organizes student events, pranks, clubs, leadership development, and many other areas of student life.

Tom received his BA and did master's work in International Relations (Russia and Eastern Europe) at George Washington University. He earned certificates from the Culinary Institute of America in Wine; Wine and Food Pairing; Mediterranean Cuisine, American Bounty and Sauces and Stocks, to name a few.

His work has been featured on CNN and local networks, as well as in Newsweek, on Reuters, NPR, and in newspapers across the country. During an interview with Patt Morrison on NPR, Stephen Hawking (a cooking class regular) rated Tom's food two Michelin Stars.