Teaching
Leslie’s Teaching
Education Philosophy
I have a long-standing commitment to teaching and education. In my laboratory, I have mentored students at all levels throughout my career: high school, undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. I advised teachers from a Manhattan high school on science curriculum, receiving an Award from the Center for Excellence in Youth Education from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in conjunction with New York City Public Schools in 2001. I employ undergraduates as research technicians and encourage qualified students to pursue higher degrees. For example, Kai Su recently received a Ph.D. from Cornell University and Nihal Altan, the first undergraduate student to work in my lab, is currently an Assistant Professor at Rutgers. I have always served on numerous Thesis Advisory Committees (currently > 15 committees), both at my home Institution, and as an outside reviewer of Theses for students at a range of Universities (e.g., Yale University, Hunter College, University of Zurich). Finally, both at Mt. Sinai and at UM, I have made major commitments to graduate education. I served as Program Director for a Training Program in Cell & Molecular Biology at Mt. Sinai and was Director of the graduate program in Molecular & Cell Biology (MOCB) at UM for a four-year term, beginning shortly after my arrival on campus. In this role, I have been committed to excellence and to diversity. I increased the size of the MOCB program and enhanced the quality of the students by actively recruiting from other highly respected undergraduate institutions such as Yale University, Franklin & Marshall College, George Washington University, Calvin College and Colgate University. Each year that I was director, I successfully recruited 1 or 2 African-American students (mostly women) to the MOCB program and I served as judge of talks and posters at ABRCMS in 2009 and 2010, an important educational and recruitment activity that I shall continue.
My teaching and mentoring philosophies are simple: I attempt to bring out the best in each student by recognizing that each is an individual with unique strengths and weaknesses. Each student has the potential to achieve excellence, and it is my task as a mentor and teacher to guide the individual student along a path towards this goal. This philosophy is exemplified by my approach to graduate training in my own laboratory, my guidance of undergraduate and graduate student advisees and my approach to classroom teaching. I maintain an open-door policy and am available to my students '24/7' by email when off-campus. Each student in my lab receives one-on-one mentorship as I tailor their Thesis projects to train them in rigorous approaches and critical thinking, and expose them to a range of experimental techniques and theoretical backgrounds that will provide the basis for successful careers in science. I expose my students to all the aspects required for a successful scientific career, including experimental design and execution, oral presentations, paper and grant writing, and training of junior students (usually undergraduate students). All of my students present their work off-campus at national meetings multiple times and weekly lab meetings provide them an opportunity to practice literature presentations, presentations of their research and critical analysis of their own work and the work of their colleagues. Virtually all of my Ph.D. students (only one exception) have first author publications from their Thesis work that are creative and novel and which were published in high impact journals. Every student graduating from my laboratory has gone on to a postdoctoral or other position of his/her choice. Finally, as much as I nurture my students, my training would fail if I did not also challenge them at every level - to work harder, to think harder, to redouble efforts when experiments fail, and to make the most of their educational opportunities to achieve to their full potential.
In interactions outside my own laboratory, I attempt to impart the same basic philosophies and goals. As graduate Director and as Advisor of graduate students in general, I put considerable effort into finding the best possible fit for each graduate student, matching him/her to an Advisor and laboratory that best fits the academic needs and goals of the individual student. In teaching large or small classes, I aim to challenge the students. I teach at a high level and strive to actively involve students in discussion and encourage them to think critically and raise questions - even in large classes. I am always willing to meet with students to answer questions, be they remedial or issues above and beyond the course material. In sum, it is said that it is an honor to teach; this phrase may be clichéd, but I believe that it is true.
- HLSC 322, Integrated Life Sciences, Principles of Genetics and Genomics (every Spring)
- ENTM 701, Teaching & Professional Development (every Fall)
- Past teaching:
- BISI 712, Responsible Conduct for Research for Biologists (Taught almost every year for many years)
- BSCI 410, Molecular Genetics (Fall semesters until 2019)
Education Philosophy
I have a long-standing commitment to teaching and education. In my laboratory, I have mentored students at all levels throughout my career: high school, undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. I advised teachers from a Manhattan high school on science curriculum, receiving an Award from the Center for Excellence in Youth Education from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in conjunction with New York City Public Schools in 2001. I employ undergraduates as research technicians and encourage qualified students to pursue higher degrees. For example, Kai Su recently received a Ph.D. from Cornell University and Nihal Altan, the first undergraduate student to work in my lab, is currently an Assistant Professor at Rutgers. I have always served on numerous Thesis Advisory Committees (currently > 15 committees), both at my home Institution, and as an outside reviewer of Theses for students at a range of Universities (e.g., Yale University, Hunter College, University of Zurich). Finally, both at Mt. Sinai and at UM, I have made major commitments to graduate education. I served as Program Director for a Training Program in Cell & Molecular Biology at Mt. Sinai and was Director of the graduate program in Molecular & Cell Biology (MOCB) at UM for a four-year term, beginning shortly after my arrival on campus. In this role, I have been committed to excellence and to diversity. I increased the size of the MOCB program and enhanced the quality of the students by actively recruiting from other highly respected undergraduate institutions such as Yale University, Franklin & Marshall College, George Washington University, Calvin College and Colgate University. Each year that I was director, I successfully recruited 1 or 2 African-American students (mostly women) to the MOCB program and I served as judge of talks and posters at ABRCMS in 2009 and 2010, an important educational and recruitment activity that I shall continue.
My teaching and mentoring philosophies are simple: I attempt to bring out the best in each student by recognizing that each is an individual with unique strengths and weaknesses. Each student has the potential to achieve excellence, and it is my task as a mentor and teacher to guide the individual student along a path towards this goal. This philosophy is exemplified by my approach to graduate training in my own laboratory, my guidance of undergraduate and graduate student advisees and my approach to classroom teaching. I maintain an open-door policy and am available to my students '24/7' by email when off-campus. Each student in my lab receives one-on-one mentorship as I tailor their Thesis projects to train them in rigorous approaches and critical thinking, and expose them to a range of experimental techniques and theoretical backgrounds that will provide the basis for successful careers in science. I expose my students to all the aspects required for a successful scientific career, including experimental design and execution, oral presentations, paper and grant writing, and training of junior students (usually undergraduate students). All of my students present their work off-campus at national meetings multiple times and weekly lab meetings provide them an opportunity to practice literature presentations, presentations of their research and critical analysis of their own work and the work of their colleagues. Virtually all of my Ph.D. students (only one exception) have first author publications from their Thesis work that are creative and novel and which were published in high impact journals. Every student graduating from my laboratory has gone on to a postdoctoral or other position of his/her choice. Finally, as much as I nurture my students, my training would fail if I did not also challenge them at every level - to work harder, to think harder, to redouble efforts when experiments fail, and to make the most of their educational opportunities to achieve to their full potential.
In interactions outside my own laboratory, I attempt to impart the same basic philosophies and goals. As graduate Director and as Advisor of graduate students in general, I put considerable effort into finding the best possible fit for each graduate student, matching him/her to an Advisor and laboratory that best fits the academic needs and goals of the individual student. In teaching large or small classes, I aim to challenge the students. I teach at a high level and strive to actively involve students in discussion and encourage them to think critically and raise questions - even in large classes. I am always willing to meet with students to answer questions, be they remedial or issues above and beyond the course material. In sum, it is said that it is an honor to teach; this phrase may be clichéd, but I believe that it is true.