Sergey Nuzhdin

My work in education has three main components: i) teaching undergraduate and graduate classes, ii) advising student research, and iii) lecturing internationally. Intellect, skills, and motivation of graduate students are of great importance, as they serve as teaching assistants in undergraduate classes and immediate advisors in undergraduate research.

i) Evolution is one of the most complex subjects to teach. First, it is required for nearly all biologists. Doctors, pharmacists, biotechnologists, epidemiologists, agronomists – all have to master its concepts. However, the class content is rather remote from their narrow specialty. Some students feel little drive to learn. Second, evolution is nearly the only model-based biological class undergraduate students experience. It represents the first hard realization of practical use of equations and statistical tests. Third, the data and proofs in evolution are frequently historical – appearing less falsifiable. Many students are reluctant to accept them as rigorous. Fourth, evolution has been singled for abuse by several religions. Many students feel conflicted. With vast amounts of genomic and systems biology data, we can now teach evolution as rigorous modern science rather than a collection of historical anecdotes. Over six years of offering evolution to 150-200 students, I have been progressively developing a modern evolution class emphasizing real-life examples and experimental approaches. Unfortunately, no evolution textbook matches the rigor of cell biology or molecular genetics standards. I have developed a complete Web resource including lecture notes, numerical homework problems, and Web-based interactive tools and assays. I am now applying these tools in teaching evolutionary portion of USC Genetics class. I am also co-developing an upper level class of Advanced Evolution with Magnus Nordborg.

ii) My firm belief is that effective method of advising students is not telling them what to do. Rather, it is in helping them to unfold own curiosity. With every graduate student individually (and selected undergraduate students), I read many research papers on numerous topics suggested by a student. We brainstorm on all the interesting manuscripts and discuss where they could potentially lead. As a result, the student i) forms a vision of scientific frontiers (and I update my visions); and ii) eventually falls in love with some topics, that s(he) pursues. Passion towards a research direction added to high motivation and intelligence does the rest: motivating trainees to learn techniques, encouraging them to spend days and nights in the lab, and giving them a feeling of controlling the future of their own research. Trainees also need access to intellectual and technical expertise, including access to the best post docs. I maintain a diverse enough group to cover most areas required for rigorous research in evolution: molecular biology, bioinformatics, genomics, modeling, and statistics. Cohesion of the lab is maintained due to weekly lab meetings frequented by trainees and faculty of other labs. We discuss ideas, research plans, work in progress, and oncoming manuscripts. To alleviate stress, facilitate openness of the discussions, and make trainees speak with each other; I organize lab hiking, sailing, and mushroom collecting trips. Undergraduate students experience this atmosphere of openness and collective joy by science. My new USC lab, started 3 months ago, already enjoys a community of 4 postdocs, 5 graduate students, a technician, and several undergraduates. We receive numerous collaborators as visitors.

iii) It pains me to see the devastation in Russian science – once upon a time leading the world in mathematics and physics. Quoting : “There are good and bad news for Russian students. Good is there are plenty great Russian professors. Bad is they all work abroad”. The average age of a Professor in Moscow State University (MSU) is 61. The salary of the Department head is ~$200 a month. There are severely limited subscriptions to reputable specialty journals with only a few outdated research resources. Nearly no professors maintain active research programs. There are 20-50 biological labs in all of Russia still working at a frontier international level, with up to 100 more following their lead. Unfortunately, most of them belong to the Russian Academy of Sciences and are thus structurally divorced from Education. There are Great born-to-be-scientist students. My personal goal is to pick those interested in my areas of expertise and save them as scientists. Typically once a year, I visit Departments of Evolution and Biophysics of MSU. Over ~2 weeks, I give 16-20 different lectures and seminars and interact with undergraduate and graduate students. I am also accepting international students, including from Russia, for short term research projects in my lab. I already taught one of such classes during my tenure in USC.

• UC Davis, Adjunct Professor

• Ph.D. Genetics, Institute of Molecular Genetics, 12/1992
• B.S. Biophysiscs, Moscow State University, 1/1989