Who are we?
Steve Ackerman
I came to University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1987 as a research scientist and joined the faculty in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences in 1992. I am also Director of the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies; a research community of scientists from UW-Madison and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. My research focuses on remote sensing the atmosphere, in particular cloud properties. At CIMSS we continually seek ways to transform our research into operations that support weather forecasting. I moved to a faculty position so that I can conduct both research and teaching. I thoroughly enjoy teaching, and received the American Meteorological Society’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 2009. As with my research philosophy, I continually explore new methods of teaching to improve student learning. In addition to teaching and research, I’m involved in a variety of outreach activities as one of the “Weather Guys”. I enjoy working with Delta and the opportunities it provides to work with folks from all over campus.
Bob Mathieu
I am a professor and currently chair of Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I've been an observational astronomer since I was 9, and now travel to mountaintops around the world to study the formation and evolution of stars. In recent years I've also been engaged in advancing STEM higher education, having helped guide the National Institute for Science Education and now being the Director of the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning. These experiences have nurtured a deep respect for colleagues in educational research, and a strong belief that better STEM higher education will derive from building bridges between research scientists and education researchers. My formal science and math education took place at Princeton and Berkeley, and my career as a Wisconsin professor has been furthered by a Presidential Young Investigator Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Vilas Associateship.
Kristyn Masters
I have been an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the UW-Madison since 2004, and I maintain a very active research lab and fantastic group of graduate students that investigate cardiovascular biomaterials and heart disease. Prior to coming to the UW-Madison, I performed my Ph.D. work in Chemical Engineering at Rice University, then post-doctoral research in Chemical Engineering at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Like many STEM researchers, I arrived at my faculty position with little preparation in teaching. Thus, thanks in part to programs offered by Delta, I have spent the last five years becoming very involved in numerous STEM teaching and learning and outreach activities. I have developed four new courses in the UW-Madison College of Engineering, and I perform educational research in the area of engineering ethics. Now, as an instructor for Delta and faculty co-director of Delta, I am working to pass along to both present and future faculty my excitement for teaching/learning/outreach and commitment to improving STEM education.
Chris Pfund
I am currently the Associate Director of the Delta Program in Research, Teaching, and Learning and co-director of the Wisconsin Program for Scientific Teaching. My background is in Cell and Molecular Biology. I earned my Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2000. Subsequently, I did post-doctoral research in Plant Pathology, studying how plants defend themselves against pathogen attack. While pursuing my research, I was strongly committed to teaching and learning.
For the past 6 years I have focused on preparing future faculty to be effective teachers and mentors, as well as to successfully integrate their approaches to research with their approaches to teaching and learning. I am connected with many the major initiatives at UW-Madison targeted at improving graduate and undergraduate education in the sciences including several efforts focused on issues of diversity. I have co-developed and co-taught a class for graduate students entitled “Diversity in the College Classroom”.
I have also been integrally involved in developing, implementing, documenting, and evaluating a training seminar for mentors working with undergraduate researchers. I have helped develop a manual for facilitators of this seminar, “Entering Mentoring”, and am currently disseminating it locally and nationally. At UW-Madison, I have collaborated to incorporate research mentor training in the campus summer research programs and am now working to adapted and expand mentor training across campus. I also continue to evaluate the impact of research mentor training on the mentors themselves and the students with whom they work.
Don Gillian-Daniel
As Associate Director of the Delta Program in Research, Teaching, and Learning I wear many hats, but am closely involved with both the Delta Internship and Certificate Programs. I really enjoy being part of a program that provides teaching and learning professional development opportunities for graduate students and post-docs; I took advantage of as many similar opportunities as I could along the way! My Ph.D. from UW-Madison is in Cell and Molecular Biology; I studied translational control in eukaryotes. My time as a post-doc and assistant scientist in the Biochemistry Dept. at UW-Madison was spent studying cholesterol metabolism. As a post-doc I also began lecturing in a course for first year veterinary students and continue to teach metabolism in the same course to this day.
In addition to my own teaching, I have been an active participant in many teaching and learning and outreach activities on campus. Through Delta's connection to the CIRTL Network I have the opportunity to learn from effective programs at other universities and to participate in the national conversation about changing the shape of graduate education. My role in the Delta Program allows me to draw upon my varied experiences as I work to create exciting teaching and learning opportunities for others on this campus, at local colleges and universities and nationally.
Brian Manske
I have recently joined the Delta team to help advance the integration of research, teaching and learning in higher education. With a focus on scholarship, my interest is in fostering the development of undergraduate education and those who teach it. For the past 8 years, I have also worked with the primary introductory biology course on campus (Biology 151-152), teaching undergraduates, mentoring graduate students and administrating course logistics. Goals for my classroom embrace inclusiveness, community, and attention to both affective and cognitive development. Traveling through academia and industry, my career path has led to an M.S. in Bacteriology from UW-Madison and numerous experiences in research, teaching and management. These experiences include research on ethanol fermentation, the ecological study of uncultured soil microbes and management of a quality control lab in the chemical industry. In higher education, I have designed interactive web-based teaching modules, developed an undergraduate research seminar and revised programs for graduate student teaching. In addition, I've taught a variety of courses with active, inquiry-based and collaborative learning strategies in majors and non-majors biology at the Madison Area Technical College and UW-Madison.
Tessa Lowinske Desmond
I am a doctoral student in Literary Studies with a master's degree in Afro-American Studies. I've been involved with Delta since the spring of 2006. Since that time, I've served on the steering committee, facilitated Expeditions in Learning about Diversity, and, in Fall 2007, came on board as a project assistant. My background is in diversity education and facilitation. Before returning for graduate study, I worked at the University of Wisconsin, Madison for the Diversity Education Program where I specialized in graduate student professional development. I'm also a facilitator for the Student SEED (Seeking Educational Equity through Diversity) program on the UW campus.
