{"id":1412,"date":"2011-05-17T09:58:24","date_gmt":"2011-05-17T16:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/?p=1412"},"modified":"2016-01-18T18:38:13","modified_gmt":"2016-01-18T18:38:13","slug":"get-to-know-neena-grover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/2011\/05\/17\/get-to-know-neena-grover\/","title":{"rendered":"Get to Know: Neena Grover"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Neena<\/a>For Neena Grover, science goes way beyond the classroom.<\/p>\n

It goes throughout the region via the Southern Colorado Aids Project. It goes to towns in Tanzania and Kenya. It goes to K-12 schools in Colorado. Any student interested in science outreach can participate in the biosciences club, which goes to a local elementary school and teaches scientific methodology.\u00a0 High school students and teachers learn about RNA research in her laboratory.<\/p>\n

Grover, chair of the chemistry and biochemistry department, wants to make science fun and accessible. \u00a0She uses real-life problems in teaching biochemistry, an approach called problem-based service learning.\u00a0 Students learn nucleic acid biochemistry by reading current literature on AIDS-causing HIV virus and present the science of virus multiplication and drug action to the local community. \u00a0\u201cThese students have enough knowledge to make a difference,\u201d Grover says. \u201cThey may not be experts, but they have learned enough to be useful to society. \u00a0One does not need a Ph.D. to make a difference in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also wants her students to know that science is a puzzle and never a finished project; that there are always new directions to pursue. And she practices what she preaches:\u00a0 Eight to 10 students each year conduct RNA-related research in her lab. The students get a lot of one-on-one mentoring in her lab, but they also learn independently, with every student getting his or her own research project. \u201cThat way, each student gets ownership of the work,\u201d Grover says.<\/p>\n

Although each student has a project, they all deal in some way with how local structures form in RNA. They examine the affect of ions on RNA stability. \u201cWe want to determine the rules for forming RNA structures.\u00a0 We study small regions of RNA that are functionally important.\u00a0 We want to improve the accuracy with which we get RNA-based information from genomic databases,\u201d Grover says. The research results are impressive, and every year Grover takes four or five students to national conferences where they present their work.\u00a0 Students also get a chance to publish their work in nationally renowned journals.<\/p>\n

When she was in her early 20s, Grover, the daughter of an Indian Air Force officer and a teacher, came to the United States, where she earned a master\u2019s degree in biophysical chemistry from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in bioinorganic\/biochemistry from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.\u00a0 While there she worked with Dr. Holden Thorp to study drugs that cut DNA for such uses as in chemotherapy.<\/p>\n

During her postdoctoral work in the laboratory of renowned RNA researcher Dr. Olke Uhlenbeck at the University of Colorado, Boulder, she began delving into catalytic RNA, one of the hottest fields in biochemistry. \u201cRNA controls everything in the cell. You have ribosomes acting as enzymes, and RNA cutting itself out of a larger RNA, perhaps telling us that RNA is the original molecule of life,\u201d Grover says.\u00a0 Boulder was the center of the \u201cRNA world\u201d during the 1990s. \u00a0While at Boulder, Grover taught an organic chemistry and biochemistry course to CU nursing students. She found she enjoyed it, and that students responded well to her teaching. She realized then that she wanted to improve science education for all students.<\/p>\n

Grover joined the Colorado College faculty in 1999. She teaches organic chemistry and biochemistry, as well as gender and science, and ecofeminism.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m not here to open their brains and dump information in,\u201d she says. When she tells her students that what they are learning now may be obsolete in 10 years, they groan and ask, \u201cSo why are we learning this?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh,\u201d she replies, \u201cyou should be thinking of the principles, and not memorizing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe liberal arts philosophy fits me,\u201d she says. \u201cI want students to see science from multiple angles; to see science broadly. I want them to think for themselves, think logically and build a foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grover is married to Gerald Miller, a professional cellist who plays with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic and with symphonies in Calfornia. \u00a0They travel to India every few years to visit her two siblings, mother and their nephews and nieces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Neena Grover, science goes way beyond the classroom. It goes throughout the region via the Southern Colorado Aids Project. It goes to towns in Tanzania and Kenya. It goes to K-12 schools in Colorado. Any student interested in science outreach can participate in the biosciences club, which goes to a local elementary school and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Get to Know: Neena Grover”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[54,90,303,373],"class_list":["post-1412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-profile","tag-biochemistry","tag-chemistry","tag-neena-grover","tag-rna-research","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1412"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2843,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions\/2843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}