Oregon State UniversitySpecial Collections & Archives Research Center

Thomas Hager Papers, 1898-2010

Biographical Note

Thomas Hager (born 1953) was raised in the Portland, Oregon area. After receiving master's degrees in medical microbiology/immunology and journalism, he began his professional career as a communications intern at the National Cancer Institute. He then worked as a freelance medical writer, contributed regularly to American Health, and became the West Coast news correspondent for the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In 1983, Hager's career began to move more towards editing and publishing. He was founding editor of LC Magazine, a trade publication for scientists, and edited Oregon Quarterly for ten years. He also worked for a number of years as director of communications and marketing at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, during which he restarted the University of Oregon Press. More than 100 of his articles have been published in periodicals ranging from Reader's Digest, the Wall St. Journal, and Self, to American Health, Cardio, and the Medical Tribune.

Hager has also had a hand in writing about a dozen books, including Aging Well (with Lauren Kesley, Fireside Press, 1990), The Alchemy of Air, Linus Pauling: Scientist and Peacemaker (edited with Clifford Mead, Oregon State University Press 2001), and Force of Nature: The Life of Linus Pauling. Currently, Tom Hager lives in Eugene, Oregon with his wife and three children.

Timeline for Tom Hager

1953 Thomas Hager is born on April 18 in Portland, Oregon.
1983 Hager takes a position as founding editor of LC Magazine, a trade publication for scientists.
1987 With his wife Lauren Kessler, Hager co-authors and publishes Aging Well.
1995 Hager publishes Force of Nature: The Life of Linus Pauling, a biography of Nobel Prize winning chemist and peace activist Linus Pauling.
1998 Publishes Linus Pauling and the Chemistry of Life.
2000 Hager and co-editor Clifford Mead publish Linus Pauling: Scientist and Peacemaker.
2001 Hager revitalizes the University of Oregon Press and is appointed Director.
2006 Publishes The Demon Under the Microscope, a popular history of the discovery of sulfa drugs.
2008 Publishes The Alchemy of Air, an account of Carl Bosch and Fritz Haber's work with nitrogen fixation.
2016 Publishes six titles in a series called Naked Facts (Eugene, OR: Monroe Press): Seroquel (quetiapine); Understanding Zyprexa (olanzapine); Understanding Abilify (aripiprazole); Understanding Statins; Understanding PTSD (with Jackson Hager); Understanding MDMA (with Jackson Hager).
2019 Publishes Ten Drugs: How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped Medicine, New York: Abrams Books, March 2019 (German, Korean, Polish, Estonian, and audio editions).

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