Erik Schultes received his Bachelors of Science in biology from Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan in 1992. In the summer of 1991, he attended the Complex Systems Summer School in Santa Fe, and was an undergraduate intern at the Santa Fe Institute under Stuart Kauffman. In 1992, he entered the University of California, Los Angeles as Fellow of the Center for the Study of the Evolution and Origin of Life. While a graduate student in paleobiology, he developed an interest in RNA both for its putative role in the origin of life and as a powerful experimental system in resolving intrinsic and extrinsic constraints in evolution. After completing his dissertation research in 1997, he joined the Bartel laboratory at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. As a Postdoctoral Fellow, Erik Schultes has applied experimental techniques to theoretical issues in RNA folding and evolution.