Partner with Trees

2021 - 2022 Spring; Images here
We’re surrounded by magnificent trees on the Stanford campus. This course is an invitation to pause, marvel at and learn about trees! We will explore several aspects of these natural wonders. Accompanied by guest lecturers and experts, we will wind our way around campus, using Ron Bracewell’s unique Trees of Stanford and its Environs as a guide. Our walks will let you discover, appreciate, and recognize unique tree species on campus and even how to safely climb trees, helping you gain a higher perspective and find your inner child. We will learn the fascinating science and ecology of trees, their importance in sustaining the Earth’s environment and how indigenous peoples have protected trees. Alongside, we’ll explore how trees have inspired poetry, song, fiction, photography, and painting. The course will introduce you to tree-enthusiasts from around the world. You will develop a short project related to trees, based on your own interests in art/literature, science, or the environment. Ideally, we want you to walk away with an appreciation for the importance and majesty of trees or to agree with Thoreau who wrote “I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.”

Indigo

2021 Summer
Co-taught with Hideo Mabuchi, Applied Physics
Class on secondary metabolism in introductory seminars

Party with Trees

2015 Winter
Freshman seminar designed to explore trees at Stanford using modern technologies and insights

Hopkins Microbiology Microbial Diversity

2007 - 2013
Course at the Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, organized by Alfred Spormann and Chris Francis

image source: https://web.stanford.edu/~siegelr/stanford/hopkins.html

Facebug: the social life of microbes

2010
We will explore three crucial aspects of microbial life. First, examine how the unseen microbial majority is responsible for critical but under-appreciated aspects of the biology of the planet. Second, investigate the array of current genomic and imaging tools available to probe microscopic organisms in the environment.  Last, we will research the importance of microbial communities and social dynamics in ecological and human health settings.

Microbes, Mysteries and Metagenomics

2008
3 credit Introductory Freshman seminar course to introduce the uses of genomics and metagenomics to probe microbial diversity

Annual Invited lectures in Geomicrobiology

2008 - 2020
Taught by Chris Francis, Department of Environmental Earth System Science, Stanford

Lights, Pigments, Organisms

2004 - 2006
3 credit laboratory and lecture course: concepts of photosynthesis and fluorescence
Co-taught with Richard Zare and Arthur Grossman

Microbiology and Molecular Biology, laboratory and lectures

1986 - 1995
Graduate level course at the Center for Biotechnology, Nehru University, Delhi India