Dr Ron Michaelis

Ron is a biomedical researcher, book author and college professor, with an interesting multidisciplinary background. His original training was in Behavioural Neuroscience (PhD in 1983, Vanderbilt University).

He spent 6 years as a Neuroscience researcher, then entered the field of Medical Genetics. After being certified by the American Board of Medical Genetics as a Clinical Molecular Geneticist in 1996, he spent 7 years doing genetic testing and gene discovery research, focusing on neurobehavioral disorders such as mental retardation and autism.

He has now retired from the practice of medical genetics, and currently teaches Human Genetics, Biochemistry and Physiology in the Biology Department at Western Carolina University. Ron has extensive experience teaching Human Genetics to non-scientists. Most of his Human Genetics students are not science majors, and over half of them are adults in the university's Continuing Education programme.Ron has recently co-authored two other books.

His first book, "A Litigators Guide to DNA: From the Laboratory to the Courtroom" has been adopted for use in the Law Schools at St. John's University and Hofstra University. In addition, he and his current co-author Kevin Sweet have recently published "The Busy Physician's Guide To Genetics, Genomics And Personalized Medicine."