B.I.O.: Hot for (Former) Teacher

When Jennifer Brostek took Alan Thornhill's graduate-level conservation ecology course in 2006, she didn't know the assistant professor at the chalkboard would one day be the man waiting for her at the end of the aisle. "I was struck by how young he was," she recalls. Wait a sec: Even though Alan "noticed her right away ... she was a student at that point. I would never ask a student out!" But when the semester ended, and Jenn asked to meet up for some career advice, a friendship quickly formed. Their relationship bloomed into romance several months later. While they vacationed in Hawaii in March, Alan found inspiration while buying Jenn a necklace — that had a matching ring. "It suddenly struck me I'd like to give her it as an engagement ring." He did just that on another trip (this time to Costa Rica) as they dined outdoors on a cliff overlooking the ocean. "I was shocked," says Jenn. They'll wed Sept. 20 in Sandy, Utah.

Jenn, 33, works for the National Science Foundation. Alan, 42, works for the Society of Conservation Biology. They live in D.C.