Liz
Armstrong, Harvard Medical School
Elizabeth Armstrong is Director for Education Programs and
Director of the
Harvard
Macy Institute for Harvard Medical International and Associate Professor in
Pediatrics (Medical Education) at Harvard Medical School, where she has also served as Director of Curriculum (1988-1992) and Director of Medical Education (1992-2001). She has played a leadership role in designing, implementing and expanding Harvard's
New Pathway curriculum. In 1994 with
funding from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, she created and continues to direct the Harvard-Macy Institute. The Institute offers professional development programs for physician-educators and
leaders of reform in medical education worldwide. She has served and chaired many Harvard Medical School committees and was a member of CornellUniversity's Board of Trustees and Cornell's Medical School Board of Overseers as well as numerous other professional organizations
around the world. Dr. Armstrong is currently a member of the Editorial Board for
Academic Medicine and is a Co-Director of the United States Europe Medical Education Exchange program.
Recognized worldwide as an expert in medical education she has lectured
and written on this subject and received an honorary medical degree from the University of Lund Medical Faculty in recognition of her contributions.
Neil Baker,
The Ohio State University
As Associate Professor of Microbiology at The Ohio State
University, I currently teach Introduction to Biology for Non-majors to a class
of approximately 600 students and an advanced course in Pathogenic Mechanisms
for Microbiology majors to approximately 50 students. I am scheduled to teach an Honors
Introductory Microbiology course Winter quarter. I have also taught Introductory Microbiology
for non-majors and Introductory Microbiology for dental students. My research interests are in the area of
bacterial pathogenesis focused on the pathogenesis of
Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Recently we have expanded our research
interest to the use of dendritic cell targeting to enhance immune responses. My most notable service is that I am
currently the Chair of the
Undergraduate Education
Committee for the American Society for Microbiology.
Bob
Beichner, North Carolina State University
Robert Beichner is Alumni Distinguished Professor of Physics
at North Carolina State
University where he is a member of
the Physics Education Research & Development Group. He studies student difficulties with various
physics topics, writes instructional computer software, develops instruments
for assessing learning, and examines the role of technology in education. He is PI of the SCALE-UP (Student Centered
Activities for Large Enrollment Undergraduate Programs) project and facilitates
its adoption at other institutions. He
is co-author of the nation's leading introductory physics textbook, used by
more than 1/3 of all science, mathematics, and engineering majors.
Kerry Brenner, National Research Council
Kerry Brenner has been a program officer in the
Board on Life Sciences at the NRC since
July of 2000. She served as the study
director for the Bio 2010 report that examined ways to improve training in
chemistry, physics, engineering, mathematics and computer science for
undergraduate biology students intending to enter biomedical research. Kerry is now working on implementing some of
the ideas of Bio2010 via the Summer Institute.
She is also involved in several other BLS projects related to biology
and national security. Kerry is a native
of Vermont and a graduate of Wesleyan
University and Princeton
University (Ph.D. in molecular
biology).
Peter Bruns, Howard
Hughes Medical Institute
I may be a misfit. Although
I spent 31 years teaching the large genetics course at Cornell, I left that
world two years ago to become Vice President for Grants and Special Programs at
Howard Hughes. So I have no current
practices worth emulating, but I strongly support the concept of the workshop. To that end, I feel that it needs to be highly
focused, so that attendees will come with specific needs and leave with real
solutions. For example, I would love to see how problem based learning exercises can be created for delivery in large
lecture courses.
Amy Chang, American Society for Microbiology
Amy L. Chang joined the
American
Society for Microbiology (ASM) in 1980.
Since 1990 she has served the ASM Education Board. Under her leadership, the Board sponsors the
annual Conference for Undergraduate Educators (
www.asmcue.org);
peer-reviewed journal on research in microbiology education called
Microbiology
Education journal; website of curriculum guidelines, peer-reviewed visual
and curriculum resources, and reviews at
www.MicrobeLibrary.org; tri-annual
newsletter of effective teaching strategies, best practices and other topics;
50 national research fellowships for students; the Annual Biomedical Research
Conference for Undergraduate Minority Students (ABRCMS and formerly the
MARC/MBRS Symposium
www.abrcms.org) where
2500 undergraduate students present research; and the annual Summer Institute
for in Preparation of Careers in Microbiology (
www.asm.org/Education/index.asp?bid=6302)
where graduate students learn about careers, effective teaching strategies,
grantsmanship, and scientific presentations.
In September 2000, the Board was bestowed with the Presidential Award
for Excellence in Mentoring in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering
Sciences. The ASM is a founding partner
of the national clearinghouse of biology resources (
www.biosciednet.org/portal) for
the National Science Digital Library Initiative. In June 1998, the Board sponsored the first
Gordon Research Conference (GRC) in undergraduate microbiology education. Between 1990 and 1993, Chang served as the
executive secretary for the Coalition for Education in the Life Sciences
(CELS), a national coalition for undergraduate biology education reform.
Richard Cyr,
Penn State
University
Richard Cyr is Professor of Biology and Assistant Department
Head for Undergraduate Affairs in the Department of Biology at Penn
State University. His lab studies the cellular basis of plant
morphogenesis and is engaged in a number of studies concerning plant meiosis,
mitosis, cell elongation, and the role of the plant cytoskeleton. He has led the redesign of PSU's introductory
biology course, developed several computer-based tutorials, and received a Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation grant to study the efficiency of using technology to
improve learning outcomes. He received Penn
State's George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching
in 1996.
Chris Day, University
of Wisconsin, Madison
Chris Day is an Assistant Professor
in the Botany Department at UW-Madison.
He joined the faculty in 2002 and his research focuses on understanding
the molecular mechanism of floral organogenesis. He teaches undergraduates in two sections of
the Biocore program, he taught the cellular biology section last spring and
will be teaching the same students plant physiology this fall. He is also involved in training students in
the Undergraduate Research Scholars program, which encourages freshmen to start
research in labs as soon as their first semester, with mentoring within the lab
and from peers. At the graduate level
Chris teaches a seminar series based on topics from the literature aimed at
generating discussion. He was also
involved in establishing and teaching a graduate level course on plant
development at Berkeley with other
post doctoral scientists.
Bob DeHaan, National Research Council
Robert L. DeHaan is Director of the
Committee on Undergraduate
Science Education (CUSE), National Research Council. DeHaan came to CUSE in 2002 from Emory University Medical School where he was the Candler
Professor of Cell Biology and Adjunct Professor of Educational Studies. From 1995 to 2001 he directed an
NSF-supported science education outreach effort called the Elementary Science
Education Partners (ESEP) program, which provided professional development and
supplied undergraduate student "science partners" from local universities to
some 1500 elementary teachers of the Atlanta Public Schools. DeHaan received his Ph.D. from UCLA in
1956. His research career spans four
decades on the faculties of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the Johns Hopkins University,
and Emory, focusing on the biophysical differentiation of the heart. He has published two books and over 100
research papers in cellular science and embryology. Among other honors, he is a Fulbright
Scholar, was twice named Outstanding Teacher of the Year at Emory, and in 1998
he received the First Bruce Alberts Award from the American Society of Cell
Biologists for Distinguished Contributions to Science Education.
Diane Ebert-May, Michigan
State University
Diane Ebert-May is a Professor in the Department of Plant
Biology at Michigan State University. She provides national leadership for promoting
professional development, evaluation and improvement of faculty, postdoctoral
teaching fellows, and graduate students who actively participate not only in
their own discipline-based research, but also in creative research about
teaching and learning. Ebert-May's work
focuses on assessment of undergraduate learning in science. Her research group is developing and testing a
web-based concept-mapping tool, (
CTOOLS,
funded by the NSF), that enables students in large (and small) science courses
to visualize their thinking online as well as to receive immediate feedback. Her recent publications describe active,
inquiry-based instructional designs, and disciplinary research strategies to
assess learning. She actively
contributes to the educational initiatives of Ecological Society of America,
served on the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Evaluating
Undergraduate Teaching, NRC Committee on Integrating Education with
Biocomplexity, is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, and is an advisory board member of the National Academy of Engineering's
Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education.
Adam Fagen, National
Research Council
Adam Fagen joined the staff of the
Board on Life
Sciences at the NRC in July 2003. He
comes to The National Academies from Harvard
University, where he most recently
served as Preceptor on Molecular and Cellular Biology and Head Teaching Fellow
for the 300-student undergraduate genetics course. Adam earned his Ph.D. in molecular biology
and education from Harvard in 2003; his research focused on mechanisms for
assessing and enhancing the introductory science course in biology and physics
to encourage student learning and conceptual understanding, including work on
Peer Instruction, classroom demonstrations, and genetics vocabulary. Adam also received an A.M. in molecular and
cellular biology from Harvard, based on laboratory research in molecular
evolutionary genetics, and a B.A. from Swarthmore College with a double-major in
biology and mathematics.
Kathy Frame, Biotechnology Institute
Kathy Frame is the Director of Educational Programs at the
Biotechnology Institute located in Arlington, VA.
She leads the Institute's major efforts to educate the public,
especially youth, about the promise and challenge of biotechnology. At present, she directs several major
education initiatives. Among them are
the Aventis International
BioGENEius
Challenge program that recognizes outstanding biotechnology research
projects of high school students; the
National
Biotechnology Teacher-Leader Program that is training a 1000 biotechnology
teacher-leaders at the middle and high school levels, and the
Minority and Indigenous Fellows Program that
identifies mentors from the biotechnology industry to mentor undergraduate and
graduate students, post docs, and faculty from underrepresented universities
and colleges interested in biotechnology careers. Ms. Frame was previously the Director of
Education for the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) for more than
nine years. Among many publications, she
edited
Shoestring Biotechnology, a
manual that offers thoughtful, comprehensive classroom activities that promote
hands-on student inquiry biotechnology activities at a low cost. She has 15 years of classroom experience
teaching biology, chemistry, and other related sciences at the high school
level and more than 10 years experience in training teachers at all levels how
to implement experimental design in the life science classroom.
Bob Full, University
of California, Berkeley
Robert Full is Professor of Integrative Biology at the University
of California, Berkeley.
Professor Full directs the
Poly-P.E.D.A.L.
Laboratory which studies the Performance, Energetics and Dynamics of Animal
Locomotion (P.E.D.A.L.) in many-footed creatures (Poly). His research laboratory applies the same
techniques used in the study of human gait - 3D kinematic, force platform, and
EMG analysis - but in miniature; he has recently focused on the role of the
mechanical system in self-stabilization.
He was awarded a NSF Presidential Young Investigators Award in 1990,
received a Distinguished Teaching Award in 1996, became a Chancellor's
Professor and director of a new biological visualization center in 1997, and
received a Goldman Professorship for teaching in 1998.
Michael Gaines,
University of Miami
Michael Gaines is Professor and Chairperson of the
Department of Biology and Director of the Environmental Science Program at the University of Miami. His current research interests include the
effect of habitat fragmentation on small mammal populations, and he is interested
in the effects of habitat patchiness on source-sink dynamics and the genetic
structuring of populations, the evolution of mating systems in mammals using
techniques in molecular genetics, and conservation genetics of threatened and
endangered mammalian species. Dr. Gaines
also directs an HHMI-funded program to promote the education of minority
students in the biomedical sciences, and helped the department implement a
Peer-Led Team Learning Workshop Biology university program. He received the University's Excellence in
Teaching Award in 1998.
Jim
Gentile, Hope College
James Gentile is Dean for the Natural Sciences and Chair of
the Biology Department at Hope College
in Holland, Michigan. His research focuses on the connection
between inflammation and cancer. He is
currently Editor-in-Chief for the journal Mutation Research. He is a former President of the Environmental
Mutagen Society (EMS), who awarded him the Student Educator of the Year Award
in 1998 and the Alexander Hollaender Award for Excellence in Research and
Education in 2001. He is the current
president of the International Association of Environmental Mutagen Societies,
a member of the board of governors for the National Conferences on
Undergraduate Research and a past Council Member of the Council on
Undergraduate Research. He also serves
on the Executive Committee for Project Kaleidoscope. He is currently serving on the NRC's
Committee on Undergraduate Education and was previously a member of the Bio2010
committee. He has been program director
for grants from HHMI, NSF and the W.M. Keck Foundation to improve undergraduate
science education at Hope College.
Bob Goldberg, University of California, Los Angeles
Bob Goldberg is a plant molecular biologist who specializes
in the area of plant gene expression.
The goal of his research has been to understand how plant cells
differentiate and how genes are activated selectively in specialized cell types
during plant development. Professor
Goldberg has received several including election to the National Academy of
Sciences, the National Order for Scientific Merit from the President of Brazil,
being named as a UCLA Faculty Research Lecturer, and being listed as making one
of the "top 15" Discoveries in UCLA's 75-year history. Professor Goldberg is highly committed to
undergraduate and graduate education and is an "expert" in making science "come
alive." Professor Goldberg has received
Distinguished Teaching Awards from the Department of Biology and the Department
of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, and was awarded the Luckmann
Distinguished Teaching Award. He has
also been awarded the Gold Shield Prize for Excellence in Research and
Undergraduate Education and was named as one of the "top 20" Professors in
UCLA's 75-year history. Recently,
Professor Goldberg was awarded a
HHMI
University Professorship with the goal of expanding undergraduate
opportunities in discovery-oriented research.
Jo Handelsman, University
of Wisconsin, Madison
Jo Handelsman has been on the faculty in the Department of
Plant Pathology since 1985. Her lab
studies the diversity and communication among microorganisms living in
communities on plants and in soil.
Handelsman has developed diverse, hands-on experiences in biology for
science majors and non-majors. She
maintains a strong group of undergraduate researchers in her laboratory and
developed "Plants, Parasites, and People," an inquiry-based course that teaches
non-science majors the principles of biology and research. She teaches a course and has developed a
textbook, "Biology Brought to Life," to help graduate students, postdocs, and
faculty develop and practice inquiry-based teaching skills. Handelsman was recently named a
Howard
Hughes Medical Institute Professor.
Her HHMI program is designed to enhance undergraduate biology education
by improving the teaching skills of graduate students and postdocs. Her program provides them a theoretical
framework and practical experience in classroom teaching, mentoring, and
instructional materials development.
Ron Hoy, Cornell
University
Ron Hoy is the David and Dorothy Merksamer Professor of
Biology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor in the Department of
Neurobiology and Behavior, at Cornell University, in Ithaca. Ron's research interests cover a range of
topics from neural regeneration to the neural basis of acoustic communication
in animals. His interest in teaching in
non-traditional ways dates from his 12 summers at the Marine Biological
Laboratory in Woods Hole, where he learned the effectiveness of total-immersion
learning. In recent years, Ron has put
together of a team of collaborators to produce multi-media teaching materials
for neuroscience and is developing materials for cognitive neuroscience and
psychology courses. As an
HHMI Professor,
he is developing modular CD-ROM materials for courses in human performance,
such as introductory and advanced undergraduate courses in human physiology,
psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and neurobiology; the first project deals
with human speech and hearing. With the
HHMI, he will be developing a set of multi-media teaching modules designed to
bring neuroscience and behavior content to genetics courses. Both HHMI projects are in early stages of
development and feedback is most welcome.
John Jungck, Beloit College
John R. Jungck is the Mead Chair of the Sciences and
Professor of Biology at Beloit College. He specializes in mathematical molecular
evolution, history and philosophy of biology, and science education reform. In 1986, he co-founded the
BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium, a national
consortium of college and university biology educators devoted to curricular
reform across the nation. He had held
many editorial positions, some of which include: Editor,
Bioscene: Journal of College Biology Teaching; Editor,
American Biology Teacher; Associate
Editor
, Journal of Computers in
Mathematics and College Science Teaching; and, Editorial Board,
Cell Biology Education. He is Chair of the Education Committee of the
Society for Mathematical Biology, serves on the Education Committee of the
American Institute for Biological Sciences, and previously served on the
Executive Board of the Coalition for Education in the Life Sciences. Currently, he serves on two National Research
Council committees: the Committee on Undergraduate Science Education and the
International Union of Biological Sciences committee. He is a Fulbright Scholar (Thailand),
a Mina Shaughnessy Scholar, a Fellow of the National Institute of Science
Education, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science.
Jack Kampmeier,
University of Rochester
Jack Kampmeier is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Rochester. At various times, he has been Chairman of the
Department of Chemistry, Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, and Dean of the College of Arts and Science. He has been in a leadership role in the
Peer Led Team Learning (PLTL) project since
1995. He replaced all of the traditional
recitation sections in a 250-student sophomore organic chemistry course with
peer led Workshops after a successful pilot.
Jack has mentored a number of faculty through the implementation phase
of PLTL and has presented numerous papers and workshops about the model. He has a special interest in the processes of
institutionalization and sustainability.
Jack is the co-author of several papers and books on PLTL including a
research paper summarizing the results in his course over an 8-year
period. Jack's work in the classroom was
recognized by University of Rochester
awards for excellence in undergraduate teaching in 1974 and again in 1999. In 1999, he received the Chemical
Manufacturer's National Catalyst Award for Excellence in College Chemistry
Teaching.
Dan
Klionsky, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
I grew up in California
and taught at the University of California,
Davis for ten years, slowly
becoming disenchanted with my standard lecture/note-taking course. Over the last few years I began to experiment
with active learning. After a sabbatical
at Dartmouth I came to my senses
and realized that intelligent life existed outside of California
(in fact, generally more intelligent) and started to look for alternative
locations to continue my research/teaching career. I ended up at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where I currently teach an honors introductory
biology course. This year I received a
grant from NSF [a
Distinguished
Teaching Scholar Award] to modify our entire introductory curriculum to an
active-learning format.
Mike Klymkowsky,
University of Colorado, Boulder
My first formative experience was a naive attempt redesign
the cell biology laboratory course to better mesh with the lecture course. I discovered the practical and institutional
obstacles associated by any attempt to revise the curriculum. Over then next 20 years, I have been involved
in all levels of undergraduate and graduate courses, from "mega-intro" and
mid-range lecture courses (200-400 students), to small ‘critical thinking'
electives (15-40 students). As an editor
of The Dynamic Cell project, I was introduced to the possibilities of using
interactive technologies to illustrate biologic systems and principles. While designing the web-based ‘Working with
the Literature' supplement to
Molecular
Cell Biology, I was forced to consider the practical issues associated with
on-line learning tools. In 1999 I co-founded
virtuallaboratory.net, inc., in
order to develop web-based Flash and Java applets so that students can perform
biological experiments on-line. Most
recently, it has become clear that rigorous assessment is essential for any
educational experiment. I have helped to
start the Bioliteracy project (
bioliteracy.net)
to develop biological concept inventories (BCIs) in order to assess student
fluency with biological concepts. Once validated, we plan to disseminate the
BCI widely and incorporate it as an integral component of various teaching
projects.
Jay Labov, National Research Council
Jay Labov is a senior staff member in the NRC's
Center for Education. He has been the study director for NRC
reports,
Evaluating and Improving Undergraduate Teaching in Science,
Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology;
Learning and Understanding:
Improving Advanced Study of Mathematics and Science in U.S. High Schools;
Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics,
and Technology: New Practices for the New Millennium;
Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics,
Engineering, and Technology; and
Developing
a Digital National Library for Undergraduate Science, Mathematics, Engineering,
and Technology Education. He has
been Director of the Center's Committee on Undergraduate Science Education and
oversees the National Academy of Science's efforts to improve the teaching of evolution
in the public schools.
David Nelson, University
of Wisconsin, Madison
Dave Nelson has been a professor in the Department of
Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1971. His research concerns the biochemistry of
signal transduction in the unicellular eukaryote
Paramecium. He has for two millennia
taught a survey of biochemistry for undergraduate majors, during which he has
learned a lot about what doesn't work in the classroom. He is co-author (with Michael Cox) of a
textbook,
Lehninger Principles of
Biochemistry. In 2002 he became
Director of the
Center for Biology Education
(CBE) at Wisconsin. CBE is a group charged with catalyzing
innovation in the teaching of the life sciences from K12 through graduate
school, including faculty development. Its activities include a variety of
cross-departmental and cross-college programs: undergraduate research; a course
that introduces beginning college students to methods of biological research;
biology interest groups for beginning students; summer courses and for K12
teachers, brown-bag seminars for faculty and graduate students on a wide range
of topics related to formal and informal teaching.
Laura Knoll,
University of Wisconsin, Madison
My research centers on studying the host/pathogen
interactions of the intracellular parasite
Toxoplasma
gondii . Toxoplasma causes abnormal fetal neurological development and
encephalitis in immunocompromised patients. We are using molecular genetic techniques to
isolate genes important for virulence and developmental regulation. I have been an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison for two years, and I taught in the Emerging Infectious
Disease/Bioterrorism course for the first time last fall. This is a two credit class designed for upper
level undergraduates majoring in microbiology.
Francisco Pelegri,
University of Wisconsin, Madison
I was born near Barcelona, Spain
and raised in Caracas, Venezuela.
I received my B.S. in Genetics at the
University of California–Berkeley in 1987, and a Ph.D. in Developmental
Genetics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994. My postdoctoral studies (1994-1999) and
current research focuses on maternally-derived products required for early development
in vertebrates, specifically the zebrafish. My teaching experience includes several
undergraduate classes on General Genetics (lecture-based) and Advanced Genetics
(lecture- and student seminar-based) as well a graduate class on Special Topics
in Vertebrate Genetics (based on scientific seminars by invited speakers).
Patricia Pukkila, University
of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Patricia Pukkila is the founding Director of the Office of
Undergraduate Research (OUR) at UNC-Chapel Hill, and is Associate Professor of
Biology there. She earned her B.A. at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her Ph.D. at Yale University, and did postdoctoral
work at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, England and at Harvard University before joining the Carolina
faculty. She has received two
university-wide teaching awards. Her
teaching interests center on ways to introduce student inquiry in large
introductory classes, and her research focuses on the genetic basis of
chromosome behavior during meiosis.
John Roth, University
of California, Davis
My educational background is mostly genetics with emphasis
on bacteria. After 9 years at UC
Berkeley. I moved to University of Utah
where I worked for 26 years. My teaching
there included undergraduate courses in the following areas (in order of time
spent): general undergrad genetics; bacterial genetics lab/lecture for
undergrads; human genetics for non-science majors; introduction to undergrad
molecular biology; graduate genetics - bacterial section. For the past year, I've been at UC Davis. My main philosophy is to demand no
memorization but rather problem solving.
I concentrate on ideas and suppress methodological details. I try to integrate things in a way that (I
hope) makes it clear that the basic ideas are relevant to all organisms and
logic is the main unifier. My lab
courses have mostly been organized either as new research on topics underway in
my lab or on pseudo-research such as open ended mutant hunts with
characterization as you go. The goal is that
I don't know how their experiments will come out, but I can make some
suggestions that they can test.
Millard Susman,
University of Wisconsin, Madison
I am a retired Professor of Genetics at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. My lab studied
bacteriophage T4, with particular emphasis on the genetic control of phage
development. I was one of the founders
of the UW Biology Core Curriculum, a four-semester, honors-level introductory
biology sequence that attempts to make students aware of the experimental basis
of biology – "How do we know what we know?" I was an early user of the computer in the
classroom, using animations and PowerPoint to make complex, dynamic processes
more accessible to students. For many
years, I taught a graduate-level microbial genetics course the used original
papers rather than a textbook. In that course,
all exams were take-home, problem-solving exams, and students could turn in
co-authored answers if they liked. I
helped in the teaching of General Genetics, a junior/senior service course,
where I experimented with ways to engage the 250+ students in active, in-class
learning. My experiment was only partially
successful. I believe students were
leery of my methods because I was the only member of the teaching team who was
not giving traditional lectures. I
chaired the Laboratory of Genetics for 14 years and then served as associate
dean of the Medical School
for 9 years and director of the Center for Biology Education for 6. As director of the CBE, I was especially
interested in promoting active learning in biology and interdisciplinary
cooperation in science education.
Derrick Tabor,
National Institutes of Health
Derrick Tabor is Program Director for the
Minority Biomedical Research
Support Branch at the NIH's National Institute of General Medical
Sciences. His portfolio of programs
includes Support for Continuous Research Excellence (SCORE), Research
Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE), and Initiative for Minority
Student Development (IMSD). Dr. Tabor
was previously chair of the Department of Natural Sciences at Johnson C. Smith
University and a chemist at Eastman Kodak.
In 1999, he was named a McDonald's Black History Maker of Today in the
area of science.
Lillian Tong,
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lillian Tong joined the
Center
for Biology Education in 1992 after 13 years of research at UW-Madison on
plasticity and development of the visual system. Her "teaching" currently includes helping
faculty/staff find resources, information, and collegial support for innovative
ways to teach undergraduate biology. In
addition she organizes cross-college discussions on teaching in the biological
sciences and develops programs for interdisciplinary teaching/learning.
Graham
Walker, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Since 1976 I have been a member of the faculty of the
Department of Biology at MIT where my lab has works on DNA repair and
mutagenesis and the Rhizobium-legume symbiosis. I co-authored a textbook on DNA Repair and
Mutagenesis and served as an editor of
J.
Bacteriol. for 16 years, finishing my 10-year term as Editor-in-chief in
2001. I have been deeply involved in
teaching and undergraduate education, having run the MIT undergraduate program
in Biology for 15 years, having been Housemaster of an undergraduate dormitory
for 6 years, and having directed MIT's HHMI-funded program in undergraduate
education in the biological sciences since its inception in 1989. I taught advanced undergrad project labs for
many years and recently received an
HHMI
Professorship to help me with my current efforts in teaching Introductory
Biology.
Paul Williams, University
of Wisconsin, Madison
I am Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology at the University
of Wisconsin. My interest centers on the development of
rapid cycling Brassica plants, ‘fast plants', as model organisms having a wide
range of applications for both research and teaching. I approach biology as a generalist with a
strong interest in natural history, genetics and plant breeding. I believe that by growing organisms through
reproductive cycles students build firmer foundations for understanding broad
aspects of evolutionary and functional biology. I continue to develop adaptable, instructional
materials for using low-cost, accessible, self-constructed equipment (Bottle
Biology) to engage individuals and families in investigative learning with
living organisms. The Wisconsin Fast
Plants Program,
www.fastplants.org,
located in Science House, UW-Madison, serves teachers and the general public in
school and informal settings.
Bill Wood, University
of Colorado, Boulder
William B. (Bill) Wood has taught biochemistry at Caltech and
developmental biology at University of Colorado, Boulder,
where he is now Distinguished Professor of Molecular, Cellular and
Developmental Biology. He is a member of
both the National Academy of Sciences and the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences. His current research is on the genetic
control and molecular biology of axis formation and patterning in embryos of
the nematode
C. elegans. In the
1980's, he was lead author of the widely used textbook
Biochemistry: A
Problems Approach, which helped to introduce problem-based learning to
biochemistry. More recently he was a
member of the NRC committee that produced the 2002 report
Learning and
Understanding: Improving Advanced Study of Mathematics and Science in U.S. High
Schools, editing and chairing the biology panel. He currently serves on the editorial board of
the new journal
Cell Biology Education, and is chair of the Education
Committee of the Society for Developmental Biology. At Colorado, he is PI of a Genetics Training
Grant and Co-PI on a large recently awarded NSF STEM-TP grant to promote and
facilitate the preparation of undergraduate science majors for careers in K-12
teaching and the reform of science courses in which these undergraduates are
taught.
Robin Wright, University
of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Robin Wright is Associate Dean for Academic & Faculty
Affairs in the College of Biological Sciences and Professor in the Department of
Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development at the University
of Minnesota. Her lab is working to develop a molecular
description that defines how cells monitor the levels of cellular proteins and
respond when necessary by proliferating the endoplasmic reticulum. Prof. Wright believes that universities must
refocus and streamline teaching efforts, help students become engaged learners,
and practice teaching as scholarship. In
particular, research should be at the core of undergraduate education at a
research university; students are responsible for their learning and that
responsibility should be promoted, nurtured, and expected; and teaching should
be a scholarly activity, approached in a similar way as research. She was previous a professor at the University
of Washington, where she directed
the Hughes Program for Undergraduate Education and received a distinguished
teaching award.
Bob Yuan,
National Research Council and Univ. of Maryland–College Park
Bob Yuan is professor of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics
at the Univ. of Maryland–College Park.
He has used his creation of three honors seminars as test beds for
developing teaching approaches and materials for mainstream biology
courses. The honors seminars have
focused on the use of biology for the solution of major problems in developing
countries, the interface between biotechnology, economic development and
culture in Asia, and Traditional Chinese Medicine as a
complementary approach to modern Western Medicine. He is part of a team that is restructuring
the General Microbiology course and has also come up with new versions of the
Bacterial Genetics and Microbial Physiology courses. He helped organize the first U.S.-E.U.
workshop on undergraduate science education and served as an adviser to the
Royal Thai government in its restructuring of graduate science education.
Note: All affiliations are as of August 2003.
