Pieces of the Puzzle. An interview with Leonid A. Gavrilov, Ph.D.

us amount of work, which was done in collaboration with Dr. Natalia Gavrilova, my wife. We were fortunate to make a number of new findings, which have since been cited in the scientific literature. Writing a book was a good method of selfeducation in aging studies. How do I know that this self-education was correct? Well, indicators include the fact that our book was selected and cited by the Encyclopedia Britannica as a recommended reference on longevity. The book also received positive reviews in a dozen scientific journals, including Nature, the British Medical Journal, and BioEssays, and more than 100 citations in the scientific literature. We believe that our research and self-education efforts were not in vain. Another very good test of our scientific credentials occurred five years ago, when Natalia and I immigrated to the United States from Russia and applied for research funding in this new and highly competitive environment. We were lucky to be awarded research grants fro