Baylor Professor Spotlight

1. Where did you go for undergrad? For graduate school?

I graduated from Baylor with a BS in Biology, a MS in Biomedical Studies, and a PhD in Biomedical Studies.

2. What is your favorite research experience?

I believe one of the best research projects that I have worked on with undergraduates is exploring alternative to antibiotics against Staphylococcus aureus. We collected 100s of samples from healthy carriers (from their noses) and made an archive of S.aureus samples to research. One undergraduate built a light box that evolved into a protocol to test the photodynamic effect of blue light on S. aureus. Students were able to ask and test a variety of questions using that box.  One student even explored the variation of gene expression under blue light using RNAseq and had her results published.

3. What current research are you working on? 

I am currently working on course based research for introductory students. One group is exploring Arthrobacter phage diversity and the biotechnology that goes along with that area of research. And another group is exploring the diversity of soil ciliates.  This group is developing protocols as well as collecting data. We are focused on the nature or processes of science and scientific communication. 

4. Did you have a mentor that made an impact on your decision to get more involved with research? How does a student go about finding the right mentor?

I was what you would consider a “non-traditional” undergraduate.  I completed my undergrad at Baylor as a transfer student after I was married and had children.  I worked during those years in a pathology lab and developed an interest in hematology research.  I learned how to perform lab techniques, but also studied and learned how pathologists classified different types of leukemias and other types of tumors as well as how to do clinical microbiology and chemistry, before automation took over.  Those years were very formative for me and even though I did not return to graduate school for about 5 years, I knew I eventually wanted to study biomedical science and have my own research.

Students can find mentors at Baylor by investing themselves in their courses and academic groups, such as BURST.  It is important to get to know your professors and actively seek a position.

5. What advice do you have for students (especially freshmen)?

My advice to students is to look for opportunities wherever you are.  Not all students will be able to get a position in a research lab, but you may be able to work, have a summer internship, or take a research-based lab. Be persistent. Read the literature. Take responsibility for your own education.

1. Where did you go for undergrad? For graduate school?

I went to Northeastern university (in Boston) for my undergrad, and the University of Minnesota for grad school. My undergrad degree is in behavioral neuroscience, and my masters and PhD are in biological psychopathology.

2. What is your favorite research experience?

My favorite research experience was working at the Boston zoo - for a while I was working with the wildebeests, and then I spent several months watching the zebras. The goal was ultimately to improve their living spaces, but it was honestly just fun to go to the zoo every day!

My most memorable research experience was when I started on my undergraduate honor’s thesis, and I got a room with 120 hamsters that I was responsible for. My mom never let me have a hamster/guinea pig/rabbit/whatever as a kid, so it was like having that pet I never had.

3. What current research are you working on?

Right now I’m working on publishing research from my dissertation. It had three parts - one was about how negative emotions seemed positively correlated with certain types of creativity, one about how negative emotions correlate with intelligence, and one was about functional brain connectivity in areas of the brain associated with negative emotions. In general, I work with large data sets that have been collected by other people, and I run fancy analyses on their data.

4. Did you have a mentor that made an impact on your decision to get more involved with research? How does a student go about finding the right mentor?

I did! The very first class I took in college was biopsychology - the equivalent of intro to neuroscience. The professor who taught it was awesome, and her research sounded really interesting as well. I started coming to her office hours, and she recommended that I take another course she was teaching that was just being created - clinical neuroscience. I loved that course as well, and got involved in her lab as a research assistant, and eventually did my honors thesis with her as well.

As far as finding a good mentor, I think you start with people who taught a course you enjoyed - not just the material, but also their style of teaching. Keep in mind that many students want to get involved in research, and it might be good to start by volunteering before trying to get course credit. And know that if a professor doesn’t have space in their lab, it’s not personal - keep in touch with that prof and they will let you know if more opportunities come up!

Get to know your professors in general - come to office hours, even if you don’t have specific questions.

5. What advice do you have for students (especially freshmen)?

First, take lots of different courses! It’s hard to know what you’ll like without trying it out. When I started undergrad, I was torn between med school and grad school - but as soon as I got involved in research, that helped make my decision for me. Don’t feel like you can’t switch majors if you find something you like better, or something you don’t like - what you thought you would enjoy when you were 17 won’t necessarily be the right path!

Also, if you struggle with any of your classes, start taking steps sooner rather than later - look into tutoring, talk to your SIs and your professor, review old exams, make a new study plan, whatever you need. It’s much easier to stop yourself from falling than to dig yourself out of a hole.

Finally, again, get to know your professors! Remember that they love the subjects they teach, and are usually happy to talk more about it. But be authentic - don’t introduce yourself on the first day of classes and never speak to them again; instead, come by their office hours when something from their lecture has caught your interest.

1. Where did you go for undergrad? For graduate school?
Undergraduate: 1977 University of South Florida
Graduate: 1980 University of Missouri-Rolla

2. What is your favorite research experience?
Working with students and faculty in the field collecting data to assess environmental land and water problems. Then examining the data in the office and develop new site insights and solutions.

3. What was your last research about? OR What current research are you working on?
Last research: Shell Oil Company, Alaska Arctic offshore oil spill response techniques. Lead a team of oil spill experts to develop new response techniques.
Current research: Determine the quantity and quality of groundwater related to Brazos River Alluvium Aquifer. The purpose of this work is to provide the data to the McLennan County Water District that manages the Brazos River Alluvium Aquifer.

4. Did you have a mentor that made an impact on your decision to get more involved with research/teaching?
At Shell Oil Company, Bill Shepherd, Hydrogeology Advisor, taught me to have a balance of field and office work to thoroughly understand environmental assessment and remediation.

5. How does a student go about finding the right mentor?
There are many ways to have a mentor---just don’t think of mentoring as one-on-one relationship. For example, you can read or listen to books in your areas of interest. This includes free podcasts and YouTube Videos. Then if books, podcast and videos don’t work, find someone doing what you want to do---running a marathon, becoming a Physician, or losing weight---hang out with these people and see how succeed.

6. What advice do you have for students (especially freshmen)?
Fan into flame your unique God given abilities. So take different classes to get a wide exposure to various disciplines. Then developing a plan to explore your passion and you’ll find your calling.

1. Where did you go for undergrad? For graduate school?

My undergraduate degree was honors chemistry at the university of Teesside (England), and my PhD was inorganic chemistry at Heriot-Watt University (Scotland). After that I came to Baylor as a post-doctoral researcher, which I did for a total of 4 years before being hired as a lecturer.

2. What is your favorite research experience?

I think one of the best things about research in general is that you get to interact with people from all over the world, perhaps in a given lab or through collaborations or attending conferences. I’ve been lucky enough to have some amazing international co-workers and mentors. Learning about different cultures and perspectives is interesting, useful, and often lots of fun.

As far as my favorite day-to-day thing about research goes, it’s the excitement and anticipation right before getting a crystal structure or taking an NMR. Perhaps you’re about to understand something that has never been understood before, or to realize that you’ve made a compound which never existed before. It’s like opening a gift on Christmas morning. Science for me is about hands-on exploration and discovery, not sitting in a lecture theatre.

3. What was your last research project about?

The last time I was in the lab I worked with a Baylor Honors student on synthesizing new 13-vertex metallacarboranes. It was slow work since my student had limited time during the week, but we isolated and characterized four entirely new compounds over the course of 3 semesters. He ended up with an outstanding classification for his thesis, and the work is publishable.

4. Did you have a mentor that made an impact on your decision to get more involved with research/teaching? How does a student go about finding the right mentor?

My PhD supervisor, Alan Welch, got me really excited about research. I had several offers, but I ended up choosing him largely because of the way that he made himself available to his students. In many large research groups the principal investigator is too busy to get involved, and new grad students are left under the supervision of other grad students. Basically, you’re left to ‘sink-or-swim.’ Alan Welch was in the lab with us almost every day, and he loved to be there. It was contagious.

In a typical US graduate school a new student will spend time in several different research groups before making a choice, and so I’d probably look at an institution in general before resigning myself to one specific supervisor. If you already have an interest in a certain field, look for an institution with a reputation for excellence in that area, and note that it’s not usually just one research group that brought the reputation. Success, especially nowadays, is typically collaborative. As a side note, please remember that there is no success without failure, and that every failure is a learning opportunity.

5. What advice do you have for students (especially freshmen)?

Don’t fear failure, it is a necessary part of progress.

The bottom line is always time; use what you have been given wisely. You reap what you sow.

You are not alone. You are a very small part of a very big world. Ask for help when you need it, and always be ready to lend a hand where it’s required.

Eat more veggies (I’m advisor to the Baylor vegetarian club), get more sleep, do some exercise, and love your neighbor as yourself.  :)

1. Where did you go for undergrad? For graduate school?

I did my undergrad at University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras, then came to Texas A&M in College Station to get my Ph.D. in chemistry. After that, I did a postdoc at Rohm and Haas working with by-products that contained cyanide. After I got married, I went on to teach general chemistry at University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

2. What is your favorite research experience?

I started undergraduate research when I was a sophomore. The lab I joined studied radical reactions and rearrangements.  One of the reactions was photochemical so you could do it two ways – with a lamp in the lab or you could go to the roof of the building and set your reaction flask in the sun for a few hours – I particularly enjoyed going to the roof so I have a fondness for that reaction. We also studied epoxides, and my first reaction ever in that lab was making an epoxide. Ask any of my former students and they will attest that I love epoxides!

3. What current research are you working on? 

I do not have a research group – but if I had one it would be on organic synthesis or forensic chemistry (I cannot decide which I like best).  I manage research programs like the research internships through the Prehealth Office, the new BTRUE program, and the Science Research Fellows major.  I strongly believe that having a good research experience will help the students want to do more research and want to go to graduate school. Having a person that you can go to for help, someone you know has your best interest in mind, and that understands what you are going through is important. I want to be that person for the students.  For research questions they have their research professor but there are other questions a student may not feel they can ask them.  I have been there, done that, and made mistakes that others can avoid. 

4. Did you have a mentor that made an impact on your decision to get more involved with research? How does a student go about finding the right mentor?

As an undergrad I was inspired into chemistry by a TA in the organic chemistry lab.  She was an amazing teacher and she used to talk to us about her research.  She had to get the venom from snakes because her project studied the composition of the venom.  It was fascinating! That’s when I first considered going to grad school.  I considered her my first mentor.  My Ph.D. advisor at Texas A&M, Marcetta Darensbourg, was also an amazing woman in science.  She was surrounded my men and she was always confident and assertive – once you see someone like that you try to emulate them.  That’s why I honestly believe that to inspire women to stay in graduate school and work in academia, we must to have more females professors to serve as role models and mentors.

5. What advice do you have for students (especially freshmen)?

My honest advise is calm down, don’t try to start research your freshman year all in a rush.  Go to each department’s website and read about the research projects in the labs.  Pick 2 or 3 of your favorite projects and read the professor’s latest publications. You need to make an informed decision.  Go talk to the professors to see if you like their personalities, talk to their graduate students and ask if they enjoy the atmosphere in the lab and their research.  This will allow you to make the best decision possible and you can stay in lab a longer time.  Don’t rush important decisions.

1. Where did you go for undergrad? For graduate school
Texas Lutheran University; Baylor University

2. What is your favorite research experience? 
 When I was an undergrad I did a summer research experience at UT Health Science Center in San Antonio where I researched protein interactions between BRCA1 and several other proteins.

3. What current research are you working on? 
 Currently, I am designing an undergraduate research project for use in a teaching lab setting. The idea is that students would get Genetics lab credit for this inquiry-based section of lab.

4. Did you have a mentor that made an impact on your decision to get more involved with research? 
 All of my science professors at Texas Lutheran University were instrumental in getting me involved in research. They encouraged me to find opportunities both within the campus as well as at other institutions.

5. What advice do you have for students (especially freshmen)?

Don’t get too caught up in trying to find research that exactly fits your research interests. Be open to any opportunity that presents itself.