Personal BIO

I am the youngest son of Miklós Mandel and Veronika Schwartz. My parents survived the Holocaust and went on to create a wonderful life together after they met in 1945 in Hungary. My mother wrote A Survivor's Memoir [ISBN 0-88947-369-2, Volume 15h], which was published by the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies in 2001. Excerpts of it were republished in 2019 in two chapters of the Azrieli Foundation anthology, Confronting Devastation: Memoirs of the Holocaust Survivors of Hungary (Ed., Ferenc Laczó). My father's incredible story is still waiting to be publicly told. I made this site to honour his memory.

I grew up in Chomedey, Laval, north of Montreal and earned my Bachelor of Arts degree (with Honours and Distinction) in Psychology from Concordia University. Through much of the 1990s, I lived on the West Coast, first in Vancouver, where I completed my graduate studies at UBC, and then in Palo Alto, where I was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychology at Stanford. In 1998, I moved to London and lived there for three years also spending much of my free time in Paris. Soon after the twentieth century abruptly ended, I returned to Canada and took up a faculty position in Victoria at UVic. A few years later, after being tenured and at the urging of a close friend, I moved to Toronto, where I've lived happily ever since. I live in Toronto with my wife, Julietta, my son, Jacob, and my daughter, Noya. 

I love research and writing and this occupies a good deal of my time. I enjoy the science but also the collaborative nature of research--the "doing" of something, together with others, moving us towards a shared goal. When I'm not involved in all of that, I like to play chess, cards and other games with my kids. I like to play guitar, especially with a backing track of the thrill is gone by B.B. King, and I like to follow the latest news in biohacking and longevity science. The news in this area is evolving rapidly and is very exciting, and it has given me new perspectives on the many delicate balancing acts required for life. More importantly, the information is practical and affecting how I live my life. 

Below: Me on July 5, 2020, with two mushroom species that I was growing--Lion's Mane (left) and Reishi (right):

April, 2022 update: When fully grown, the Lions Mane was sautéd in butter and pepper and was delicious. The Reishi mushoom grew for several months and eventually I cut it into small pieces for tea. I am still using it. However, I am not growing mushrooms anymore, though I still make Reishi mushroom coffee at least once a week. On the other hand, I have 7 gallons of kombucha brewing at any given time and usually a quart or two of sauerkraut.