Catching up with Salisbury graduate John Gardus

Catching up with Salisbury graduate John Gardus


What is your full name?

John Domonick Gardus


When did you graduate from Salisbury?

2008


Tell us about your life since high school.

I spent four years in Baltimore as an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University where I studied mechanical engineering and played football. After graduating, I did a one-year Master’s program in biomedical engineering at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.


Since then, I’ve been mainly working as a programmer/data analyst in a neuroimaging lab at Stony Brook University on Long Island. We scan research subjects using MRI and PET in an attempt to establish biomarkers for mental illness and various neurological disorders. I’ve bounced around several different towns on Long Island over my 5 years there, but currently share an apartment with my girlfriend in Great Neck, NY.


Outside of work I enjoy golfing, skiing, snowboarding, hiking, playing pickup sports, and spending time with family and friends.


What are your summer plans?

Playing lots of golf, doing some hikes in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.


What have you learned through this pandemic?

I learned that I can be just as productive working from home as at the office and that I can survive a whole week without ordering takeout.


What was your favorite high school memory?

It’s tough to choose one thing but I’d say hanging out with teammates after spaghetti dinners on Thursday nights during football season.


What is your favorite movie or TV show and why? 

I haven’t watched a show in a while but I’ll go with Breaking Bad because I thought it had a pretty unique storyline and the cinematography was cool. I also like how the writers went out on a relative high note after five seasons rather than trying to drag it out and make more money.


How are your brothers Scott and Ryan and your sister Kelly doing?


They’re all doing well. 

Scott lives in Philadelphia and works in a lab at CHOP. 

Ryan and Kelly just finished semesters virtually; Ryan is in a graduate psychology program at Rider University, and Kelly will be a junior at Ursinus College in the fall.


If you could meet anyone (alive or dead), who would you choose and why?

Probably a mathematician from the 16th or 17th century like Isaac Newton or Galileo; I find it fascinating that they were able to devise still-standing laws describing natural phenomena without the aid of modern technology. It’d be interesting to pick their brains.


Who is your role model and why?

My parents because they’ve always worked hard and set a good example for my siblings and me.


#yoursalisbury