Teaching interests
I am interested in teaching mass balances, transport phenomena, fluid mechanics, differential equations, reaction engineering, and control theory. I also have interest in teaching a dynamical systems course, which will include numerical techniques for solving systems of nonlinear differential equations. In addition, I am prepared to teach both biology to engineers and engineering techniques to biologists.
I plan to develop an advanced, graduate-level course in biological dynamics. Furthermore, due to my interest in developmental biology, I am interested in designing an undergraduate-level elective in developmental biology. These courses are described below:
- Biological dynamics: this graduate-level course will be part lecture, part literature review. It will focus on biological systems that have been successfully modeled, including thermodynamic models of protein/DNA interactions, kinetic proofreading of protein translation, and morphogen gradient models in development. There will be emphasis on understanding both the mathematical/physical models as well as the significance of the biological experiments that undergird and validate the models.
- Developmental biology for non-majors: this course will be an introductory level course in developmental biology. While it will be designed to fulfill a biology requirement for non-biology majors, its main goals will be to garner interest in developmental biology and teach the significance and relevance of developmental biology in today's world. In addition to covering the general concepts of developmental biology from the perspective of an engineer, lectures will also include the ethics/impact of stem cell research, biology in the post-genomic era, and the current status of studying development to uncover paradigms in cancer-treatment and tissue engineering.
I have helped prepare and teach a short course on Perl and Matlab for biologists. In graduate school, I was a teaching assistant for CHE441, Chemical Reaction Engineering. From these experiences, and informal tutoring/mentoring of high school students and college/graduate peers, I have found that I enjoy teaching immensely. As a professor, I am looking forward to teaching and mentoring both graduate and undergraduate students.