Eric Golanty, Ph.D.
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About Eric Golanty
I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and grew up in West Los Angeles. I went to college at UC Berkeley, majoring in biochemistry with the intention of going to medical school. In my junior year at Cal I became a member of Professor C.H. Li's Hormone Research Lab, where I was introduced to both biochemical comparative endocrinology and how to be a top-notch scientist.
By senior year at Cal I became heavily involved in basic scientific research and decided not to go to medical school and instead earn a Ph.D. in biochemistry and endocrinology in Dr. Li's labs at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco. My interest area was structure-function relationships in protein hormones, principally mammalian prolactin.
In the Hormone Research Lab and grad school at Berkeley and UCSF I received top level training as a scientist, a perspective and identity I have carried throughout my life. Among those who influenced and guided me the most were Professors Howard Bern, Thomas A. Bewley, Neal Castagnoli, Daniel Koshland, Jr., Harold Papkoff, Henry Rappoport, and Richard C. Strohman.
In graduate school I realized I wanted to use education to help people and to make the world a better place, so I stopped my Ph.D. work in biochemistry and turned my attention to college teaching and writing textbooks about human biology and health. The guiding principle of my work was to use education to help people be well so they would enjoy a full life and not need medical care often. Needing more social scientific training, I ultimately earned a Ph.D. from UC Davis in Human Development and Family Studies.
My commitment to health and wellness education led to what became a lifelong collaboration and friendship with Professor Gordon J. ("Doc") Edlin. Doc also was a highly trained scientist and professor of genetics at UC Davis. We shared a passion for using basic science knowledge to help people, and in 1982 we published the first of 12 editions of our successful college text, Health and Wellness.
I have served as a faculty member in the Departments of Human Development and Community Health at UC Davis, a staff health educator at UC Davis, and a professor of health at Las Positas College.
I am married to lovely person, who is a physician. We have a fantastic son.