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Andrew McGovern

    • About Me

      I am a 🧠brain🧠 scientist studying differences in men and women 👨‍🔬 I love making podcasts and music 🎸 I probably play too much rocket league and Ultimate Frisbee! I also made science TikToks for the department of health about COVID-19 for the last 8 months!

    • Read more
      I love talking about science! It is my go to topic of conversation in pubs. I love my research which is in another section below 😀
      I work a bit with the big boys in NPHET talking about COVID to young adults. If you have any Qs about it, let me know 🙂
      I also have a podcast called Living Room Logic where me and one of my best friends from school talk about cool science stuff. I make all the music for the podcast and that is a lot of fun. It is really good (no bias)!
      Like this is the time Tony Hoolahan told me he loved my podcast (no 🧢).
      ok maybe a lil 🧢 but he did give me a  and that has to mean something right
    • Read more
      Science has amazing discoveries which save millions of lives but also mistakes we need to learn from. One of the biggest mistakes imo is that research has historically been in just men. They guessed that there were no differences between men and women and that drugs and diseases in men worked the same way in women. But things like depression, arthritis (sore joints) and Alzheimer’s disease (memory loss in old age) are all more common in women.
      Figure 1. Sex Differences in Disease Outcomes Associated with Sex... | Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Neuroscience
      My research is focused on understanding sex differences in brain diseases so we could hopefully understand why men or women are more likely to develop a disease, and then make a better treatment for them. It is really tricky!
      But I looove it.

    • My Typical Day

      I wake up, make myself some food and scroll my social media of choice for the first 30 minutes (sometimes an hour) of my day. Then I might start crunching some numbers, doing LOADS of reading cool stuff or writing papers, I might go into the lab to get an experiment rolling or go in to teach labs on the heart, lungs, muscles, brain or other bits a pieces. Usually I finish up somewhere between 4-7 (depending on when I stopped scrolling), make my dinner, play video games, go to Frisbee training or watch a show before bed :)

    • What I'd do with the prize money

      Use it to buy equipment and cover costs so I could start doing science shows where I would tell some amazing stories from science in schools with my mate from the podcast. It would be a blast but I just am missing some money to make it happen.

    My CV

    • Education:

      University College Cork, University of Limerick

    • Qualifications:

      BSc Neurosceince, MSc Medicine, PGDip Teaching, Learning and Scholarship

    • Work History:

      Teaching Assistant in Biosciences in UL

    • Current Job:

      PhD student!

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        Laughing brain scientist

        What did you want to be after you left school?

        I wanted to be a vet in school but I then chose brain science!

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        Too often. Me and school didn't get along but I really enjoyed college 😄

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        Green Day

        What's your favourite food?

        Easy, pizza all day.

        What is the most fun thing you've done?

        Motorbike trip in Vietnam 😎

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        Infinite happiness, money and time.

        Tell us a joke.

        Whiteboards are remarkable

Questions answered by Andrew

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