Fernando Cardozo-Pelaez

Associate professor, biomedical pharmaceutical science

Hometown and country?
I’m originally from Colombia.

How long have you been at UM?
Five and a half years.

Describe any research or special projects you are working on.
I work on animal models of Parkinson’s disease, try to understand the causes and how to intervene.

What classes do you teach?
On the graduate level, I teach toxicology and neurosciences, and at the undergraduate level, a substance use and abuse class.

What surprised you when you first came to UM?
The camaraderie.

What’s the best thing about Missoula?
The people.

What’s your favorite Montana body of water?
The Blackfoot.

What’s your favorite local food source?
Vietnam Noodle Express.

What is the biggest accomplishment in your life?
My family.

Describe your family.
I have a wife and two kids. I think they are superb.

What is your main goal in life?
Get my family ahead.

How would you solve the energy crisis?
We have to get rid of our dependence on oil and change the owners of the resources to be more spread out and not localized in a few groups.

If you were head of the United Nations, what would you do?
Follow protocols of peace and help with the redistribution of resources.

What reading material is next to your bed?
Kurt Vonnegut’s "Breakfast of Champions."

What’s your desert island album?
The Beatles’ "Love."

What’s your preferred mode of communication?
Verbal.

Do you have a cell phone?
No, and I don’t have an answering machine. If I’m not here, I’m home, so people know where to find me.

What’s your greatest hidden talent?
I think I have explored them all.

If you could be any animal, which would you be?
Any kind of bird.

What was the strangest job you ever had?
Bartender helper. I had to clean out glasses with cigarette butts.

What would most people be surprised to learn about you?
That I’m a scientist.

What’s your favorite guilty pleasure?
I’m not going to say. It’s guilt and it’s pleasure.

-- Interview and photography by Winona Sorensen