Science teacher Gaddy Bergmann teaches biology, biochemistry and AP environmental science. He has been teaching at Timberland since 2017. 

“Before I was a middle school teacher in Denver, I was a … research biologist, and I was always doing some kind of environmental or ecological research. My masters was on a fish in the everglades, an invasive species… and my doctorate was on bison ecology, so for my dissertation I went around collecting bison dung and using DNA sequencing technology to figure out what microbes were in it and what the animals were eating cause you can figure out diet from DNA too. And also I was a part of an environmental testing company where we tested water quality, the kind of stuff that I teach my APES students about now, we tested… effluent from wastewater treatment plants, projects, microbiology from soil… stuff like that. I also worked at a BioTech company where we were using microbiology to develop rapid testing technology for people with lung infections. Finding a way to detect pneumonia pretty quickly,” Bergmann said.

Bergmann has authored three books, the Feral World Trilogy, which can be borrowed from the school library. 

“I like that Dr. Bergmann is able to keep class on track while also allowing us to have fun. Everything he talks about is super interesting and you can really tell he’s passionate about science. He is definitely the smartest teacher I have ever had,” sophomore Mary Becker said.

Bergmann was born in Israel, grew up in Colorado, lived in Florida, and then moved to Missouri five years ago. Bergmann has traveled to Europe, Africa, and South America. His hobbies include hiking with his dogs and drawing. His favorite animal is  a wolf. His favorite part about his BioChem class is the Environmental Science Unit while his favorite part about his Biology and AP class is the Ecology Units.