My name is Darya Rose and I am the creator of Summer Tomato.

I'm also a neuroscience Ph.D and the author of Foodist. I recently moved from San Francisco to New York City with my husband Kevin Rose and our insanely adorable mini labradoodle, Toaster.

I spend most of my time thinking and writing about food, health and science. I eat amazing things daily and haven't even considered "going on a diet" since 2007. I hover about 5-8 pounds below my original goal weight without much effort and am in better shape than I was at 20, which is totally awesome.

In 2010, I completed my Ph.D in neuroscience at UC San Francisco--my diploma is signed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. A little over a year before graduating I started writing about food, health and weight loss here at Summer Tomato, and by the time I graduated I had a new career.

My writing has been featured in several well known publications, and is frequently mentioned by many more. I received my bachelor's degree in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley, and was recognized as one of the top students in my graduating class of 2003. I also play Zelda.

As you can see, I'm a total geek.

For 10 years I studied basic science in labs at UC Berkeley and UCSF. I have worked extensively with both human subjects and experimental animals, using a wide range of techniques to explore the basic biological functions of the brain.

Originally my plan was to go into medicine (well, after I switched majors from English literature to biology in my 4th year of college--I graduated in 6 years) because I wanted to help people with diseases of the mind. However after a little digging I learned that there were no cures and very few effective treatments for the neurodegenerative diseases I was interested in. I then questioned how satisfied I would be in medicine and opted instead to go into research.

Although many brilliant people are making key discoveries in health every year, ultimately I realized science wasn't the answer I was looking for either--at least not in the way I had envisioned. This is because in large part the questions I hoped to answer have already been solved.