Jacob FrenchmanBIOSC Senior and almost med student Hey everyone! It’s Jacob, one of the peer advisors. For this blog post, I had the opportunity to interview one of my favorite professors at Pitt, Dr. O’Reilly, about her experiences as a scientist and as a professor. As a freshman, I had Dr. O’Reilly for intro Bio 1 and 2, as a sophomore I TA’d for her intro Bio 1 and 2 classes, and as a junior I had her for biochemistry. Now as a senior I am taking her BIOSC 1010: Communicating in the Biological Sciences course. Remember - it is always a good idea to check in with your professors at office hours and get to know them. This is a great way to get to know them, TA for them, have them co-sponsor your research, and maybe write some letters of rec one day. Jacob: What did you study in college? Why did you study it? Dr. O’Reilly: I completed my undergraduate degree in industrial biology because I wanted to work at Pfizer. But, as part of my degree, I was required to do a job placement where I relocated to the NIH with my friend for 6 months to study RNA polymerase. Working at the NIH is where I realized my love for biochemistry. Originally, I wanted to do molecular biology because I believed that biochemistry was too old school. However, my professor, Paul Engel’s passion for genetic diseases caused by protein deficiencies motivated me to begin studying fatty acid metabolism. I was so fascinated by how studying protein and kinetic data (biochemistry!) could make a significant difference in patient lives. So, I returned to school in Ireland to attain my PhD in biochemistry. Jacob: What led you to Pitt? Dr. O’Reilly: Growing up in Dublin, moving to Pittsburgh was not my lifelong dream. What brought me to Pittsburgh was my husband. He runs a lab at the medical school, so I started working in a lab as a postdoc in a different lab at the medical school studying molecular genetics. Initially, my dream was to lead my own lab at the medical school. However, I transitioned into a senior scientist role at a lab at the children’s hospital looking to repurpose drugs to treat diseases in children. When my boss was recruited to Washington University in St. Louis, I found myself at a crossroads: Should I start a new challenge or a new lab? As a postdoc, I always loved working with the younger students in the lab, it was my favorite part of the job. While I loved research and hoped to someday help people through science, teaching presented me with an opportunity for more direct impact on others. So, I decided to start teaching the communication in the biological sciences class which was only 16 students. Soon after, I started teaching full-time and began teaching the big lectures classes of over 300 students, which was a huge change for me! Jacob: Are you currently still doing research? Dr. O’Reilly: I have a funded project from the provost office to learn about peer-teaching. Every week some of my students create a short teaching video (3 minutes, 1 per semester per student) and then two people peer-review two videos per week. We are trying to see if students will learn better when they are actually reviewing material and not just passively listening to lecture. The lecturers don’t do bench research anymore, but we are all doing funded work to try and improve education. We want to help our students learn as best as they possibly can, so we meet weekly to discuss the latest research on how to best help students learn. This is especially important in our current time because the pandemic has exacerbated disparities in high-school education. We want to get all our students at the same level. Jacob: What is your favorite class to teach? Dr. O’Reilly: I really enjoy teaching foundations of biology because I can meet students when they are freshman and hopefully get them excited to study biology and become scientists. I love teaching biochemistry because it is my favorite subject, and we can get more in-depth with human diseases which I find so fascinating. Also, the students in Biochemistry have an established foundation in biology, physiology, and chemistry so there is so much potential for critical-thinking and powerful connections. Honestly, I also really love communications in the biological sciences because it is student driven — they create the final material, and I am merely their editor. Jacob: What’s your Favorite part of teaching? Dr. O’Reilly: My favorite part is always meeting students and see them progress and mature. I love to see my students grow into independent learners and watch them become successful! This is largely why I really love the communications in biological sciences class because there is so much student discussion that allows me to develop relationships with my students. Even if in a large class, if we (the professors) can explain material in a way that makes sense to our students we can see the lightbulb go off and watch our students develop powerful connections for themselves. Teaching gives me the potential to reach a lot of people and (hopefully) get them all interested in biology! Even if I can’t get everyone excited in biology, I sincerely hope that by the end of Foundations 1 my students can analyze and do research for themselves. Jacob: What is the most challenging part of your job? Dr. O’Reilly: It is challenging having very large classes, with nearly 300 students in some classes. Luckily, I have a wonderful teaching team with UTAs and assistant instructors that help me. But with the sheer number of students, it can sometimes be a bit challenging. My students are so kind and understanding of the fact that we have so many students, so they are patient. Also, sometimes it can be challenging trying to reach everybody in the class. As instructors, we get worried that some students fall through the cracks which we try to never let happen. Jacob: What advice do you have for younger students who want to be bio majors/biologists? Dr. O’Reilly: The most important thing is developing good study habits. So many students come in and have huge dreams and aspirations. All of us, as instructors, want to see everyone hit those dreams. So, I would highly recommend reaching out to instructors to build reliable study habits, go to office hours, and use the study lab! It is essential to be realistic with yourself and identify when you are struggling so you can get help because we all really do want to see you succeed. Jacob: Lastly, what is your favorite thing about Pittsburgh? Dr. O’Reilly: I was very surprised when I first moved here that there is such a large and supportive Chinese community, which is very important for me especially because my children are bi-racial, and I want them to get that diverse experience and be part of the community. I really love doing Tai Chi, and this past weekend we went to the Asian lantern festival at the zoo to perform and watch our kids do kung fu there. It was a great opportunity to relax and do non-academia related things. Well, everyone, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! If you ever get a chance to take a class with Dr. O’Reilly, I highly recommend it! If you want to swap stories about your favorite professors (maybe who I should interview next?) or just want to talk about random stuff (maybe enrollment since that’s coming up this week?) feel free to swing by Madison and my office hours on Monday at 3-4 PM!
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12/19/2022 06:57:32 pm
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