Dr. Gabriel Guzman

Brief Biography:

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Gabriel E. Guzman is currently a professor of Microbiology at Triton Community College, in River Grove, just outside Chicago, USA. He specializes in methods of metacognitive learning as well as collaborative learning to help students improve the way they learn complex subjects, such as microbiology. Professor Guzman was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala (Central America), where he earned his "Licenciatura" in Biochemistry (a 'Licenciatura' is equivalent to a bachelor's degree). He then went to Sweden, where he earned is Master's degree in Medical Microbiology and later a Ph.D. in Infectious Disease control, both from the prestigious Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Dr. Guzman would say that his main achievement during his research in infectious disease control was the development of a low-cost, yet sensitive and specific diagnostic method for onchocerciasis (River Blindness), a disease that is endemic in many countries in West Africa as well as his own country of origin, Guatemala. Professor Guzman's other passion, nutritional biochemistry, led him to moved to the US from Sweden to complete his postdoctoral training in molecular endocrinology at Duke University Medical Center, in North Carolina; his entire lab was relocated from the Duke Campus into The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, where he completed his post-doctoral training studying the effects of catecholamines on beta-3-adrenergic receptors of fat cells. His other passion, teaching, led him to accept a position at Triton College where he currently teaches the next generation of scientists. Professor Guzman keeps up to date with his various fields of interest and specialty, and brings the most current developments into the classroom to expose his students to new developments in those disciplines. He applies the latest theories of cognitive research to the design of his lectures and laboratory experiments, thus turning learning into an activity that truly develops critical thinking, instead of compacting data in his students' brains. More recently, Professor Guzman has been collaborating with McGraw-Hill Publishers in various projects that include the development of metacognitive tools to help students study, learn and retain content, as well as the development of laboratory simulations that incorporate metacognition at the core of the learning process 'in silico'.

Academic positions:

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2007-present Professor of Microbiology, Triton College, River Grove, IL 2006-2007 Adjunct Instructor, Microbiology, Illinois Central College, Peoria, IL 2004-2005 Research Associate, The Hamner Institutes for Health Research, RTP, NC 2003-2004 Postdoctoral Fellow, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC. 2002-2003 Associate Researcher, Parasitology, Swedish Institute for Infections Disease Control, Sweden 1993-1997 Associate Researcher, Tropical Diseases, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, Guatemala

Research interests:

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Nutritional Biochemistry; nutritional control of metabolic diseases Molecular aspects of metabolic diseases

What I think of the idea behind WebmedCentral:

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The model of publishing without peer reviewing is unsettling at first, but then it becomes intriguing. Too many times, pre-reviewing has hampered the advancement of science, not because the research in question was not relevant, but because it somehow did not fall within the accepted dogma. I have personally endured the 'elite' treatment, having manuscripts rejected not on the basis of its scientific merit, methods, or even how the experiments where designed, but because the reviewers 'felt' that the research was 'unnecessary', something proven inaccurate later when the experiments described there opened the door to the development of a low-cost, yet specific and sensitive test for a highly endemic infectious disease in West Africa. Therefore, I believe the philosophy behind WemedCentral model will increase the presence of research that would otherwise be obstructed. Perhaps the best part is that researchers will be critiqued not by a selected group of reviewers but by large numbers of them; a true peer-critique, wich can only advance and improve the quality of what is being published.