Dr. Osterlund attended Clemson University in Clemson, S.C., where he earned a bachelor's of science degree in biological sciences. He earned his Ph.D. in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology in 2000 from Yale University, concentrating his research on seedling development in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Following graduate school, Dr. Osterlund was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga., where he studied the movement of unique pieces of DNA called transposable elements. In 2004, he began working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Quantico, Va., developing molecular techniques for their forensics and counterterrorism unit. Dr. Osterlund began teaching at Rocky Mountain College in 2008.