John Parascandola received his B.S. degree in chemistry from Brooklyn College. He then earned an M.S. degree in biochemistry and a Ph.D. (1968) in the history of science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After spending a postdoctoral year at Harvard University, Dr. Parascandola returned to Madison to join the Wisconsin faculty in history of science and history of pharmacy. From 1974-1981 he also served as Director of the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy. In 1983, he entered on a career of over 20 years of Federal service, first as Chief of the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine, and then in 1992 as Public Health Service Historian, a position from which he retired in 2004. Since then, he has taught courses in the history of modern biology, the history of public health, and the history of poisons for the University of Maryland College Park and has worked as an historical consultant. Dr. Parascandola's research interests have focused largely on the history of modern biomedical science, the history of pharmacology and drug therapy, and the history of public health in America. He is the author of The Development of American Pharmacology: John J. Abel and the Shaping of a Discipline (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), which received the Urdang Medal is 1994. He is also the author of Sex, Sin and Science: A History of Syphilis in America (Praeger Publishers, 2008), which received the George Pendleton Prize for 2008, and King of Poisons: A History of Arsenic (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2012). Dr. Parascandola has been active in several professional organizations, including serving as President of the American Association for the History of Medicine (2006-2008). His honors include: the Sidney M. Edelstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry (2002); the Surgeon General's Medallion, the highest honor awarded by the U. S. Surgeon General (2004); and a Citation of Merit from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2005).