Thomas A. Marks

Thomas A. Marks is a native of Fairfield, Connecticut, which is located 60 miles northeast of New York City but presently resides, along with his wife Deborah, in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, 40 miles west of Philadelphia. He received a BA in Chemistry (1962) and an MS in Biochemistry (1967) from the University of Connecticut, and served in the US Army (First Lieutenant, Artillery) from 1963-65. He then received a PhD in Pharmacology from the State University of New York at Buffalo (1973), doing his thesis work at the Roswell Park Cancer Research Institute. Dr. Marks was with the John L. Smith Memorial for Cancer Research in Maywood, New Jersey (1967-8, isolating anticancer antibiotics), the National Heart and Lung Institute (1972-3) and Microbiological Associates (1973-5, experimental cancer chemotherapy) in Bethesda, Maryland, and Research Triangle Institute in North Carolina (1976-80, Teratologist). He retired in Nov. 2008, after 10 years (Toxicologist) with AstraZenica LP, in Wilmington, Delaware and 18 years with the Upjohn Co. in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he headed a group employing rats and rabbits in an effort to determine if pharmaceuticals caused birth defects or affected reproductive performance. Motivation to write the novel "Strays" is based on Dr. Marks' admiration for the unrecognized performance of a group of individuals, who came together in an effort to overcome problems occurring in dogs and cats at a kennel in Michigan. Although the cause for such problems was finally learned little was done to alleviate the situation, which persists to this day. Inconsistencies with reality and what was being disseminated about the health risks of synthetic industrial chemicals, in contrast to what was being ignored about the dangers associated with the ground being used to return electrical currents to power stations, also motivated Dr. Marks to write "Strays."