Thomas Synder

But Snyder considers puzzle-solving a hobby. His first priority is his research as a bioengineering postdoc in HHMI investigator Stephen Quake's lab at Stanford. Snyder works on finding ways to synthesize genes with microfluidics, a technology often called “lab on a chip” that uses tiny amounts of reagents to make the process fast and cheap. “Solving a sudoku does something to make me happy, but it's not helping people in developing countries deal with malaria,” he says. “The kind of science we're doing here in the lab may have those broad-reaching impacts.”

The challenge of solving a new puzzle is also what draws him to research. “What is the secret? Can I find it?” he says. “[Sudoku] is kind of like science in this way. You have a bunch of approaches you can take to a problem you don't know how to solve yet, but eventually you're going to find something that starts to work, and then you're going to build off that.”

Two years of competing helped Snyder keep his cool in Goa, where finalists had to solve their puzzles on stage in front of an audience. “The world's getting quicker,” he smiles. “I might have to retire pretty soon and just start writing puzzles for the competition.”

Photo: Courtesy of Thomas Snyder

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