Associate Professor of Biology
My approach to teaching is to involve students in the process of science and to guide them to edify a deep level of thinking, understanding and wonderment of biology. A main goal of my teaching is to equip students with the skills and the passion for science and to empower students to use those skills to answer questions on their own.
Professor of Biology and Bingham Endowed Chair Paul Duffin
About Paul Duffin’s Work
According to professor Paul Duffin, students must be able to think critically about the subject at hand, to evaluate the information and, ultimately, to take a genuine interest in the material. The field of biology cannot be reduced to a simple list of facts to learn or processes to be memorized.
“It’s wonderful to read about what scientists have done in the past. But it’s quite different to experience being a scientist yourself in the lab, answering novel questions in the laboratory that no one knows the answer to,” Duffin shares. “A main goal of my teaching is to equip students with the skills and the passion for science and to empower students to use these skills to answer questions on their own.”
In addition to teaching, Duffin is highly involved in research in the areas of molecular microbiology, bacteriology, bacterial pathogenesis and bacterial genetics. During the summer, he works with students in his lab, giving them even more experience.
“I am fond of saying that any day spent in the lab is a good day, and so my favorite moments at Transylvania tend to be in the lab, when students are not reading about science, but actually performing and doing science and being scientists themselves.”
