Hall of Honor
Lewis captained a brilliant three-year run of SCIAC Championship titles for the wrestling squad as a three-time individual champion and four-time NAIA District 3 medalist, including a runner-up finish as a rookie at 126 lbs. One of just two three-time champions in program history, he is the only Beaver to win SCIAC titles at different weight classes (126 and 137 lbs.) and was a two-time recipient of the Thomas W. Latham Trophy for ability, attitude, improvement and performance.
Named Caltech's Outstanding Athlete of 1972, he became a Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Wyoming in 1980 and is currently the USTAR Professor of Biology at Utah State University. He has become renowned for identifying the way that morphine-like chemicals in human nerves are made and cloning genes for all the major spider silk proteins, then generating ways to make them on a larger scale with practical applications toward fibers, adhesives, gels and coatings.
