2009-11: Postdoctoral Fellow, Carnegie Mellon University. Advisor: Dr. Aaron P. Mitchell
This was a ~2-year stint studying fundamental pathways for pH response in yeast. My work resulted in a first author and a co-first author paper, both published in American Society for Microbiology (ASM) journals. During this period, I mentored undergraduate and graduate students in the lab for their science projects. I initiated and established the Scientific Speaking Skills Course for 2nd and 3rd year PhD students at CMU Biology. This was a cohort-based series, that I instructed with support from the graphic design staff member in the department. We had close to 100% attendance for the whole series every year I offered this. After piloting this in 2009-10, it became a mainstay in the program and was eventually converted into a credit-bearing course. I taught this in the fall semesters from 2009-2016 - seven times! Peer-reviewed papers
2005-09: Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California, San Francisco. Advisor: Dr. Philip J. Rosenthal During my UCSF postdoc training, in addition to the exciting research uncovering fundamental biological pathways of the pathogenic malaria parasite, which resulted in two first author manuscripts, I participated in pivotal experiential professional development programs. These established my love for teaching, public speaking, and higher education. Professional Development Program Engagements at UCSF - Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) Program - Becoming an Effective Science Teacher (BEST) - included teaching a semester-long of a Microbiology Lab Course - Presentation Skills: Art of Lecturing Course Peer-reviewed papers
___________________________________________________________________________________ 1999-05: Ph.D. (Biological Sciences), Carnegie Mellon University. PhD Advisor: Dr. Beth Jones (deceased 2008) During my PhD training, I was keen on learning how to do systematic, sound, & ethical research. My advisor was very hands-off. She truly allowed me to learn by failing. She was a great woman leader in many aspects. She left it to up to me to write and correspond my first paper. Although it was very daunting at the time, I successfully corresponded and got it published in MBoC. During my PhD, I mentored several undergrads in the lab two of whom share authorship on the PNAS paper. I served as Teaching Assistant for three courses while also serving on Women in Science Seminar Committee. I also led discussions on primary literature for NSF-funded students conducting summer research in our department. Peer-reviewed papers
1996-98: M.Sc. (Molecular biology), University of Madras, Chennai. MS Thesis Advisor: Dr. N. Gautham My thesis research involved computer simulations of the prion protein dimers. _____________________________________________________________________________________ 1993-96: B.Sc. (Microbiology, minor in Biotechnology), University of Mumbai |