The students’ professor
Posted: November 1, 2011
Paleontologist brings new life to Anatomy
Anatomy Chair Peter Kondrashov, Ph.D., is living proof there’s no substitute for passion. When you love what you do, your excitement is contagious.
Thus explains his success in the classroom and popularity among students, who this year voted to grant him the Max T. Gutensohn award.
“I’m hyper; I get excited when I teach. I’ll say, ‘look at this cute cell,’ and the class just dies laughing. You need to like what you’re doing, or it’s not going to go well,” he says. “I think the biggest reason students like my lectures is because I love my subject. One histology student wrote saying he thought the class would be boring, but was surprised to find beauty in the stained tissues. I get excited about what I teach, and I think students see that. When they see I’m excited about the subject, they get interested.”
Of course passion is only part of the equation. Dr. Kondrashov, an international researcher trained as an anatomist at Moscow State University, also knows his subject matter.
“First, I make sure I know my stuff. Then, I make sure I deliver the material well. And then when I test, I’m always fair. That’s my teaching philosophy.”
In addition, he is a selfdescribed “laid-back guy,” who forms a positive rapport with students based on mutual respect. “I very much respect the students, and I think they notice that – and it pays back,” he says. “If you don’t respect them, they’re not going to respect you. I take this very seriously.”
Putting himself in the student’s figurative seat helps. “I always try to remember when I was a student,” he says. “I think one of the mistakes that a lot of teachers make is that they forget where the students are and don’t connect with them. I try to look at material not as an expert but as a student. And being a visual learner, I usually put a lot of visuals into my lectures. I like images, and I think visual learning is really important.”
Pushing new frontiers
Born on the border between Russia and Asia “in the middle of nowhere,” Dr. Kondrashov is the son of a geologist who moved the family to Moscow when he was a toddler. It wasn’t until 2001 that he moved to the United States to accept a teaching job at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville to teach anatomy and histology. He joined ATSUKCOM in 2006 – primarily so that he could devote more time to his research – and became Anatomy chair three years later.
An active researcher, he collaborates with international researchers, reconstructing life from bones and fossils. From such treasures, he can “see the creature behind it,” achieving a better understanding of what the animal was like anatomically and how it lived. “Basically, I’m looking at dead things, and they come alive in my hands,” he says. Ongoing papers include research on a 55-million-year-old skeleton from New Mexico and a sloth-like creature from Mongolia. In total, he has described about 10 spefaculty profile cies of animals new to science.
At ATSU-KCOM, he furthers discovery and innovation in the classroom as well. He has big plans for Anatomy, including making it more clinically oriented and incorporating technology. The latter includes the use of ultrasound, upgrading anatomy labs with computer stations, and using an online dissector, as well as a 3-D atlas, which will help students see and rotate structures. “I think this will greatly improve students’ perception of anatomy,” he says. “I think they have lost interest in anatomy, and this will make it more relevant to what they’ll be learning later on. I hope to make it more likeable and interesting again.”
Over the last two years he has completely digitized the Histology course, which currently utilizes the most up-to-date technology to deliver the content of this challenging discipline. Not surprisingly, he’s done his research, talking with numerous anatomy chairs across the country to develop a unique system that sets the bar for the teaching this course in the digital format.
Teaching “is really where my passion is,” he says. Other passions include traveling, always with his camera, and working and playing outdoors. His office walls display a colorful collection of butterfly photos taken on his many adventures.
Still, at the end of the day, bags unpacked, he’s happy to return to Kirksville. “I love my job, I love my career, my family, and my life here,” he says. “I’m a happy person. A whole person.”