Biography

Trisha Gura has been writing about molecules and medicine for 15 years. Her unique science and literary background gives her the rare ability to communicate even the most technical aspects of science—as story. Her readership is wide, from academics at Harvard to everyday mothers, worried about their children’s health.

Trisha began her career pipetting DNA in a laboratory. In 1990, she earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology from Northwestern University in Chicago. Sensing the need for better translation of science for the general public, she embarked upon a career based on writing about the science that she loves.

In 1991, she won a Mass Media Fellowship from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. That led her to the Chicago Tribune, where she became a staff reporter. As a freelancer, she later wrote news and features for scientific publications such as Science, Nature, New Scientist and Scientific American, as well as popular publications such as Health, Child Magazine, Yoga Journal and The Boston Globe.

In 2002, she won a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT and Harvard. That brought her to Boston, where she eventually earned a Visiting Scholar position at Brandeis University in Waltham.

In 2003, she embarked upon her most challenging project, Lying in Weight: the Hidden Epidemic of Eating Disorders in Adult Women, (Harper Collins May, 2007). Part memoir, part state-of-the-art medical journalism, this book breaks new ground in its exploration of eating problems through a uniquely expert as well as accessible voice. Trisha is currently working on various multimedia projects as well as a book, Body: the Complete Human, for National Geographic.