Carolyn Bertozzi

Associate Professor, Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology

Carolyn Bertozzi received her B.A. from Harvard and her Ph.D. from Berkeley. After postdoctoral work at UCSF, she joined the Department of Chemistry in 1996 and is now a member of the Molecular and Cell Biology Department as well. Among her other courses, Bertozzi regularly teaches Chem 3a, Chemical Structure and Reactivity, one of the large service courses populated by non-majors, many of whom are pre-med students. "The challenge," she says, "is to sustain the excitement and deliver the information in an enormous classroom setting." She holds her office hours in a class room to accommodate the dozens of students who might visit each week. Time and again, student evaluations read like the following one: "Professor Bertozzi really has a passion for what she is teaching and it shows in the way she presents the material. And the passion rubs off on us."

Statement Of Teaching Philosophy

Teaching a class is equivalent to telling a story. First the characters are introduced, their personalities revealed, then conflicts are established, building to a climax, which is ultimately resolved. A good story transcends its specific circumstances and teaches us about the world we inhabit, the relationships among its denizens. It is never forgotten. My goal in each lecture I deliver to students is to tell a memorable story that will permanently alter the way they perceive the world.

The details of the story and manner of its delivery are different for every class. My most frequently taught course, Chem 3A, is an introductory level course for freshmen and sophomores majoring in biological sciences or destined for medical school. None of these students has chosen chemistry as a major and most are terrified of the course's reputation nationwide.

My philosophy in Chem 3A is to provide a view of organic chemistry through my eyes, to recapture in each lecture the thrill I felt when it was revealed to me that molecules are as diverse as human beings. Some are high energy, others more complacent. Some are strained, unpredictable, volatile, or explosive. Others operate in the background, always present but never interfering. The anthropomorphism of organic molecules and their social (or anti-social) interactions makes this complex subject more palatable to the beginning student, and certainly more fun.

The demographics of advanced organic chemistry, Chem 113, are quite different and hence the story takes another form. The course is an elective, not a requirement, and only those students with an interest in the subject enroll--most are chemistry majors and many are destined for graduate school. My objective is to prepare them for the "real world," to shatter the simple illusions created in their introductory courses and reveal the true complexity of organic chemistry research, the elaborate and often controversial experiments underlying what they learned before as fact.

Finally, I teach graduate bioorganic chemistry (Chem 212/230), an initiation course on the subject for Ph.D. students and a few veteran undergraduates. My audience comprises future leaders in the field, and therefore I designed the course as a foundation for new research ideas and a forum for scientific discourse with their peers. My own research in cell surface chemistry is included in the curriculum. This course takes me back to my roots in biology, the place from which I first appreciated organic chemistry.

I serve as the vehicle through which the students can glimpse the beauty and excitement of organic chemistry. If they experience for a moment the feeling of enlightenment that I felt when first exposed to the subject, then I have achieved a modicum of success.