Teaching Examples and Phylosophy

Video: Talk nerdy to me - integrating microbiology with the physical sciences

Video: Scientific animation for your presentations

With the widespread availability of information online, the mandate of university classes is shifting away from rote knowledge transfer, and toward the goal of teaching students tools that highlight the scientific method. Asking the right questions, reading scientific literature, and critically analyzing data are increasingly required, particularly now that data acquisition is rarely a limiting factor in science. I am committed to training the next generation of quantitative biologists to tackle challenging research questions using systems-based approaches, in part by integrating biology with computational modeling and bioinformatics. Merging theoretical biology with practical data analysis and model generation ideally prepares students for the challenges of research, as well as for the modern data-driven work environment.

As science becomes more collaborative, I believe that the next generation of researchers will be increasingly quantitative. Training these new scientists will require a strong understanding of physical and mathematical principles, and will involve integrating these approaches with a large variety of disciplines. Having trained in a unique environment where cutting-edge technologies from engineering and physics are applied to important questions in basic science, I am qualified to impart both the rigor as well as the breadth of knowledge required for a successful interdisciplinary education.

3D Animations

Cheetah3D is a great animation program and pretty intuitive to learn. To add a little visuals to my talks I have started animating a few concepts, such as the life-cycle of Caulobacter crescentus above. Once you start it is hard to stop! It’s easy to get carried away and start animating too much. Email me if you would like the full-version files!

Women in physics

Being a woman in the physical sciences comes with challenges. About only 20% of physics degrees are granted to women, which leads to a lack of role models and entrenches gender stereotypes. My undergraduate physics class was no different, and while the lack of other women created a close-knit community, it also isolated us. In my second undergraduate year at UBC I was fortunate to take a class with Dr. Mona Berciu, a professor in physics and an amazing role model. Dr. Berciu was well aware of these gender issues and was planning an event for high school women to meet other women in physics. That year I volunteered for the first event of “Welcome women to physics” (WOW) and enjoyed it immensely: the event created a support system and reinforced awareness that women succeed in the physical sciences. I decided to organize it the following year and improve the format based on what we had learned the previous year. The event was a great success and WOW is still running to this day, helping recruit bright women students to the UBC physics department.

Download cloning tutorial

If you are interested in a very comprehensive manual on the topic I recommend Molecular Cloning by Sambrook and Russell. I compiled this document utilizing material from a number of resources, in particular the molecular biology workshop at UBC, invitrogen, NEB, my lab notebook, Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, CSH protocols and notes from Russell Monds and Tiffany Vora. If you find any typos or inconsistencies please email me so that I can keep this document up to date and as useful as possible.

Science tidbits

Science should not be only limited to scholars. Most scientific journals and textbooks require a significant degree of background; hopefully you will find the topics presented here accessible no matter what your training is!

Living la vida LOCa. A brief insight into the world of the "Lab on a chip" and microfluidics.

Diffusion equation tutorial. Requires some basic linear algebra and derivatives background.

Science beyond classes

Even though there are numerous other seminar series occurring at any university, in most cases they are oriented towards individuals that are either actively researching, or have a substantial education in the topics being presented. This structure can be very discouraging to undergraduate students interested in discovering possible future employment opportunities, learning about cutting edge research, or simply attending a lecture for interest. Due to the nature of much of the active research, lectures are mainly presented at international conferences – venues that are inaccessible to undergraduate students.

I decided to start The Adventures in Science seminar series to try and break down these barriers and provide a venue for UBC students to find out about new and exciting aspects of science by exposing them to research early in their undergraduate career. The series consisted of 12 talks, 6 per term. The invited speakers were all top-notch researchers at UBC who were chosen for both the quality of their research as well as their effectiveness as a speaker. In 2007-2008 Dr. Andre Marziali, Dr. Patricia Schulte, Dr. Douw Steyn, Dr. Brett Finlay and Dr. David Ng, Dr. Michael Bennett, Dr. Keith Benson, Dr. Bill Unruh, Dr. Carl Hansen, Dr. Mark Halpern and Dr. Neil Cashman more gave lectures on topics ranging from biology to biotechnology to physics, to science outreach and even history of science. This event hosted approximately up to 100 science undergraduates and is still continued at UBC by a very talented team of students that are part of the UBC Biophysics Student Society.

AIS not only allows students to learn about new research, it can also direct them towards a specialization in their studies by giving them a new or more specific direction. Due to the large breadth of topics covered, this seminar series can affect directly all science undergraduates, most of which have only experienced science in classes and therefore can hardly judge what they would like to do in the future. From the point of view of COOP and more generally internships in laboratories this can be a great way by which students find out more about the laboratories that are at UBC; from the perspective of the speaker this is a great way to recruit possible research assistants thereby fostering collaborations and internships.