As a postdoctoral fellow in the Jarosz Lab, I’ve served as a research mentor for undergraduates through the Stanford University SSRP, the Stanford University Chem-H Scholars, and the Stanford University Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Summer Research programs, and I previously mentored undergraduate students in the Tullman-Ercek Lab in conjunction with the NIH Bridges to Baccalaureate, E3S Transfer to Excellence REU, Amgen Scholars, and UC Berkeley Undergraduate Research Apprentice programs.
All these initiatives focus on introducing undergraduates to hands-on science in a supportive, inclusive environment, and I couldn't have hoped for a more enthusiastic, thoughtful group of beginning scientists (more than a dozen in all, many of whom went on to pursue graduate studies in outstanding departments around the country). I would recommend participation in these programs as a researcher or mentor to any undergraduate, graduate student, or postdoc.
As a postdoc, I co-led the Chemical & Systems Biology department’s incoming student ‘bootcamp,’ an intensive weeklong course held each year when new graduate students arrive on campus. The bootcamp is not a lab class with cookbook experiments—the students instead perform real investigations under the guidance of postdoctoral fellows who help the students to design experiments in aid of their research.
As a graduate student, I was an instructor for the graduate Protein Engineering course at UC Berkeley for two semesters. The course focuses on student-centered learning through group engineering projects and student-led discussion of primary research articles. The course featured guest lectures by scientists from academia and industry, as well as a visit from the creators of UCSF's Chimera molecular modeling software.
I've served as an advising scientist with the K-12 Alliance Next Generation Science Standards Summer Institute. The institute unites curriculum coordinators, classroom teachers, and working scientists to organize and deliver an intensive one-week institute on NGSS for teacher leaders from throughout California. The institute is focused on modeling instruction, demonstrating science and engineering practices, and building content knowledge so that teacher leaders can model best practices in their home districts. I believe the tenets of NGSS can be applied just as well to undergraduate and graduate education, and seek to align my own teaching with these principles.
Michele Sarazen and I established the UC Berkeley Chemical Engineering Student Symposium as a forum for early-career graduate students to share their latest results and build their presentation skills in a supportive environment. The event also hosts a poster session open to all undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers in the department. We are grateful to the UCB PMB department for modeling what a successful, long-lived student symposium can look like!
I ran the 800m competitively throughout high school and college, and I still run today (although primarily for metabolic flux balancing, not competition).