I'm originally from Spain. And when I was, I studied at the university there, and I didn't like it very much. So I kind of, I dropped out. And then I stayed for about three, four years that I was not studying or doing much of anything.

Then I came to the States, and after four years or so of waiting tables and doing odd jobs and things like that, I decided to go back to school. And I took several remedial courses because my English wasn't where it needed to be.

And I took a course in psychology, and I fell in love with psychology and became very motivated. And I went from being the poorest student to being a very good student. I did my PhD at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and there I was lucky to have a very good mentor, a very successful researcher who had a passion for research and science. And I enjoyed what I did and was very motivated to publish and to investigate important questions or what I felt was very important.

And, from there, I went directly into an assistant professor tenure track position at Texas A&M University, and I've been there since then, since 1994. And at Texas A&M University when I got there, people started talking about tenure. So everybody was very nervous and anxious. And, I wasn't, but it was out of ignorance because they really always focused just on doing the science and the research.

And so I figured out that if I did not produce at a given level, I pretty much had to find another job. And so I got nervous for a little bit, for about a year or so. And talking to a former professor from Purdue, he said, "Antonio, you are where you are because you work hard and you had good ideas and they paid out. And, basically, so, all you need to do is keep doing what you were doing as a graduate student. They give you five years. Give it time. Don't worry about it. Just do what you think should be done, and things will work for you."

And it was probably a very good piece of advice because that's what I did. I kept doing what I knew how to do, and I did not worry too much about things that I could not control.

And so I received tenure. I had good advice along the way in terms of ideas for studies or finding a niche that I could claim as mine. And so my advisor from graduate school was helpful in that regard. I used to do research on classical conditioning and the impact of classical conditioning on the development of tolerance to morphine. And he mentioned, "You know, there are some new findings, people who have found that nicotine produces analgesic effects. And they're measuring these effects just like we measure them with when we use morphine. You know, you could sort of replicate that with nicotine."

And I thought that was a good idea, so I applied for a small grant. I got that. And then I applied for a larger grant, and I got that as well. And that was really what launched me into being successful, I think, and move through the ranks from Assistant to Associate and then to full Professor.