University Hill researcher wants intellectual spark

I do cancer research at Upstate and I spend my days looking through a microscope at cells that are trying to kill people. It's heavy work and I love it but it makes small talk feel pointless sometimes. I'm thirty six, never married, and I've been told I'm hard to know. That's fair. I'm guarded with people I don't trust yet. I want someone who's okay with gradual, who asks questions I haven't heard before, and who can handle a woman who's smarter than the average bear and doesn't downplay it. Intellectual chemistry is where it starts for me.