Academic Background

Andrew J. McGovern joined the neurosciences in University College Cork earning a B.Sc. in Neuroscience (2013-2018). Then awarded a departmental scholarship for a Masters by Research (2018-2020) studying sexually dimorphic effects of early life stress on hippocampal neurogenesis and microglial activation under the esteemed supervision of Prof. Yvonne Nolan and Dr Olivia O’Leary. Andrew's work has since contributed to two publications (1 & 2) observing sex differences and studying females following early life stress.

Andrew joined the University of Limerick in 2019 as a full-time teaching assistant supporting the B.Sc. Bioscience program. During this time Andrew supported 17 modules across neuroscience, immunology, genetics and anatomy, and graduated from a graduate diploma in teaching, learning and scholarship.

Andrew was then offered a departmental scholarship to begin doctoral studies identifying sex differences (genetic and hormonal) in metabolism. He hopes his findings may explain, in part, sex differences in the epidemiology of some diseases such as Alzheimer’s and could inform more precise treatment strategies.

Since joining Barreto Lab in June 2021 Andrew has published four papers (1, 2 & 3), thrice as first author. He has been awarded travel grants by the International Brain Research Organization to travel to Egypt for an advanced school which was sadly cancelled due to COVID-19, the International Society for Neurochemistry to attend a  Flagship School in Brain Metabolism and Health with the Journal of Neurochemistry in Schmerlenbach, Germany. Most recently he was awarded an exchange fellowship to work in the Cajal Institute in Madrid, Spain by the International Brain Research Organization.

Andrew also works as a part time teaching fellow in University College Dublin on the MicroCreds initiative.

Andrew has previously been interviewed about his research with the Silicon Republic.

 

Science Communication

Andrew is an award winning science communicator (FameLab Ireland - Ireland's biggest science communication competition) in which he won the audience prize in the Limerick heats and the national finals - telling the history of poor research in women's health using rhymes and a puppet. Following this success Andrew launched a podcast, Living Room Logic, which peaked at #1 on the science podcast charts in Ireland. Since Launch in the spring of 2021, they have released over 40 episodes including the following led by Andrew: Neuroscience of Addiction, Addiction and Human History, Where is the Cure to Cancer, Psychology of Conspiracy, How to see the Future of Omicron and the Neuroscience of Depression.

During the COVID-19 pandemic Andrew was invited by Deirdre Watters (head of communications and member of the national public health emergency team) to help communicating COVID-19 information to young adults (@scicommcollective instagram/tiktok) where Andrew produced a spoken word piece which was highlighted by the Irish Examiner. This work was highlighted by the European Centre of Disease Control as best practice in COVID-19 and vaccine communications.

In November 2021, Andrew began independently producing COVID-19 science communications on TikTok in response to anxiety and uncertainty in the discourse of Irish social media. In the 3 months following Andrew built an audience from 500 followers to over 30'000 with his daily series through the Omicron wave whilst accumulating over 5 million views.

Andrew has since given seminars and training's in UL and UCC in science communication and is open to invitations (contact via andrew . mcgovern @ ul . ie).

Sport

In UCC, Andrew Joined the Ultimate Frisbee club and during his time there held committee positions including ordinary committee member, chairperson, secretary, assistant treasurer, mixed captain and men's head coach. In his year as club captain UCC won the Irish flying disc associations college of the year.

A very active member of the ultimate community, Andrew has run international tournaments and managed multiple Ireland national teams, representing Ireland as a administrator, for teams competing at world championships. 

In 2018 Andrew was the first person to captain an Irish team to a European club championship medal in Wroclaw, Poland. Following this in 2019, Andrew was chosen for the Irish senior mixed team to represent Ireland at European ultimate championships in Gyor, Hungary.

Presently, he continues to play in Limerick with UL and the local club PELT ultimate and has won the indoor mens inter-varsities. He also coaches the Castletroy college secondary school team.