Today’s Village Voice features an interesting piece on the work of Simon Anthony, a researcher at Columbia University Medical Center. Anthony is working to discover “the next HIV,” according to the Voice, so that scientists will have a better idea of how to stem its impact before the virus even has an opportunity to break out.

Anthony specializes in finding viruses that can jump from animals to humans — as HIV is believed to have done in its earliest iteration. In his work, he’s identified potential threats in smuggled meat, and tracked the progress of avian flu.

The Voice notes that in his research, Anthony discovered an impressive (and frightening) 130 viruses, and has helped in the discovery of about seven percent of all known viruses. Not bad for being only 31 years old.

It’s all very neat stuff, but our favorite part is the writer’s description of Anthony:

He is tall and slender, with light brown hair that forms a small wave. In his Londonaccent, he draws out vowels, particularly when he says viiiruses. He is a trained opera singer who practices tap dance and the waltz during otherwise wasted minutes of laboratory life, like waiting for a centrifuge to stop spinning. In and out of the lab, he wears V-neck sweaters, skinny jeans, and stubble, an unassuming uniform for someone who spies on nature’s conspiracies to unleash a plague on New York.

Not exactly the Arnold Schwarzenegger type, but saving the world nonetheless. Check out the full article here. It’s well worth the read.