Christine Gorman joined TIME in September 1984 as a reporter-researcher, became a staff writer in 1988 and was promoted to her current position as a senior writer in 1998. That same year she inaugurated the magazine's personal health section with her award-winning "Your Health" column, which helps readers make use of the week's top health and medical news. Gorman has received accolades from the Deadline Club sponsored by the Society for Professional Journalists, in the category "Best Columnist" for her Personal TIME columns. She also writes for the Science section of TIME. Covers include the recent "Secrets of Eating Smarter," "The New Science of Sleep," and "Diabetes: Are You at Risk?" Gorman also wrote for TIME's 1996 Man of the Year issue on AIDS researcher Dr. David Ho.

Born in Bordeaux, France and raised in Pennsylvania and Texas, Gorman taught high school biology in the Houston Independent School District after graduating from college. She traces her lifelong love of biology to the age of two, when her family came to the U. S. aboard an ocean liner. The young Ms. Gorman was so curious about the tuna that followed the ship that she had to be kept on a leash to prevent her from going overboard.

Her twin passion, writing, also came to her early in life. Gorman recalls spending hours spellbound by her grandmothers' tales of life in the Midwest and in Europe--particularly during the Depression and World War II. Thus Gorman says storytelling came naturally to her. Today she uses her skill to translate the specialized language of science into everyday English for TIME readers.

The oldest of three daughters of a French mother and an American father, Gorman graduated summa cum laude from Rice University in 1982, with a B.A. in English and Biology. In 1984, she received her M.A. from Johns Hopkins in the Program in Writing About Science. Gorman is fluent in French and numbers travel, camping, two-step dancing and watercolors among her many interests and hobbies.