Adam Ruben is an American writer, comedian, rapper, storyteller, science communicator, and molecular biologist.
He is the author of Surviving Your Stupid, Stupid Decision to Go to Grad School (Random House, 2010),[2] a satirical guide to post-baccalaureate education, and Pinball Wizards: Jackpots, Drains, and the Cult of the Silver Ball (Chicago Review Press, 2017),[3] a narrative nonfiction book about the past, present, and future of pinball.
He majored in Molecular Biology at Princeton University, graduating in 2001 with minors in Engineering Biology, Creative Writing, and Theater & Dance, receiving the Gregory T. Pope '80 Prize for Science Writing.
He earned his Ph.D. in Biology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 2008, where he used isothermal titration calorimetry and spectrophotometry to quantify the enthalpic and entropic contributions of enzyme-ligand interactions, specifically the binding of novel hydroxymethylcarbonyl isotere-based dipeptidomimetic compounds to the plasmepsin family of aspartic proteases used by the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum for breaking down human hemoglobin.
While at Johns Hopkins, Ruben taught classes in the Expository Writing Program, the School of Education, the Department of Film & Media Studies, and the summer program Discover Hopkins; he still teaches an undergraduate class called "The Stand-Up Comic in Society."