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From Research to Working with School Children to Company President Andrea Gwosdow was born in Queens, NY. As a child she always liked animals. While she did not have many of her own, she belonged to 4-H and was able to work with farm animals that way. She also rode horses. In high school Andrea always liked science. She liked doing experiments and learning new things. About that time a good friend of hers died of cancer. That made her want to try and figure out how the body works and why it sometimes goes wrong. She found a cancer research center that had a summer research program for high school students in Woodbury, NY. She spent another summer in a biology lab in Israel doing research. Do you want to include the names of these labs? College YearsWhen it came time to pick a college to go to, Andrea picked Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH. She went there because it was a work-study college, which means that students get to work at a real job while they go to school. She studied biology and environmental science. After college, Andrea wanted to go on to more school so that she could get a PhD and have her own lab and do the research she wanted to do. She went to the University of Florida in Gainesville. She studied what happens to the body when you get too hot because of the weather, exercise, or a fever. She got her degree in 1984. Out on Her OwnDr. Gwosdow needed to get more training before looking for a job. She moved to a lab in Connecticut and studied what effect exercise, clothing, and how hot or cold it is outside have on the body being able to stay at the right temperature. When she started looking for her first job, she wanted to work in the same area of research. In July 1987, Dr. Gwosdow got a research job at the Shriners Burn Institute in Massachusetts. She studied the chemicals that are released in the body when you are burned. She tried to find a way to make it not as bad or not there at all. Getting Money to Do ResearchDr. Gwosdow wrote to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to get money for her research. She got a big grant from them in 1990. The place she was working was studying humans and she wanted to do more basic research about how things work, without having to always test it in humans. So she moved to a new laboratory with the ability to do basic research using cells, animals and humans. Here she learned how to do all sorts of new techniques and measurements that she needed to know to do that kind of research. Part way through her grant, Dr. Gwosdow started to apply for her next grant. Often a scientist has to apply more than once to get money from NIH. There are a lot of people who want money, so your grant has to be really good. If you don’t get money the first time, they let you try to make it better and then send it back in again. As she kept trying, she started to look for other types of jobs that she could do besides research. A New JobThis is when it helps to have a lot of friends. A friend found out that the place Dr. Gwosdow worked had just gotten a lot of money to work with a local Boston public middle school, Timilty Middle School, to teach science to students. Then Dr. Gwosdow found out they needed someone to run the program. She knew about the program but had never had time to help out even though she knew she liked working with kids. So she applied for the job and got it. Dr. Gwosdow was able to work in that job and still work in her lab half time. It went so well in the new job the school won a national award and Timilty Middle School was named a National School of Excellence, which meant Dr. Gwosdow got to go to the White House with the school to get the award. At the Timilty Middle School Andrea worked with K-12 students and teachers to run Science Career Nights and Family Science Nights. At the same time, Dr. Gwosdow also was helping the American Physiological Society (APS) by being on the Women in Physiology Committee. While she was on the Committee, she helped to start a program that matched up older scientists with new scientists to help them learn what to do to make it in science. After that, she was asked to join the Education Committee. Because of her new job and her committee work, Dr. Gwosdow started to think about just what she wanted to do with her life. That was when she decided to start her own company to help make science more interesting and real for more students and people. In 1997, she started Gwosdow Associates and became its President. Her Own CompanyGwosdow Associates (www.gwosdow.com) writes about science and medicine for people and works with teachers, lawyers and business people to help them understand science. Having her own company lets Dr. Gwosdow use her skills as a scientist and her interest in helping others learn about science. While she has been in business, Dr. Gwosdow has written papers, articles, grants, and education programs for doctors and other companies that make drugs or other products. She also works with schools to make science classes better and helps make science more real for people. Because of that work, she was asked to be the first Chair of a new APS committee called the Communications Committee. As Chair, she has helped put together talks at national meetings to help scientists learn how to explain to their neighbors and reporters about their research and why they are worried about being able to get enough money to do their research. Dr. Gwosdow also still works in science by teaching physiology to students who want to be doctors.
Dr. Gwosdow likes to be outdoors and do things like hiking and biking. She also loves to read and make quilts. She trains dogs and takes them to nursing homes to cheer up the patients. She also works to bring hands-on science activities to teachers, students and their parents in her local school district.
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