Dr. Ares is a professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology at the University of California (UC)–Santa Cruz. After receiving a B.S. in biology at Cornell University, Dr. Ares earned a Ph.D. (1982) from UC–San Diego, where he was a graduate student in the lab of Stephen H. Howell; his thesis was on cell cycle-regulated gene expression in Chlamydomonas. Dr. Ares went on to do a postdoc at Yale University School of Medicine with Alan Weiner, working on the transcription of human small nuclear RNA (snRNA) genes. During this time, he became interested in RNA processing and also began to work on splicing. Dr. Ares was hired as an assistant professor in the biology department at UC–Santa Cruz in 1987, became a full professor in 1998, and was the founding chairman of the Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology at UC–Santa Cruz. He served as chairman from 2000 to 2002.

Dr. Ares has authored many articles, holds two U.S. patents, and has been a reviewer for study sections of the National Institutes of Health. He also serves on the editorial boards of the journals Gene Expression, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and RNA and has been a reviewer for many other scientific journals.