Kathy M. Takayama, Ph.D.

Associate Director for the Life & Physical Sciences, Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching & Learning
Adjunct Associate Professor, Bio - MCB

Phone: (401) 863-9192
Sheridan_sci@Brown.edu

Kathy Takayama holds a B.S. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Rutgers Medical School. She was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow from 1991–1993 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1994 Kathy moved to Sydney, Australia where she became tenured at the University of New South Wales. She returned to the US in 2007 to join the Sheridan Center. In addition to her molecular biology research in RNA processing, Kathy’s research interests include visualizations and learning in the sciences, collaborative learning communities, and online inquiry-based learning. She has published numerous conference papers and journal articles on her work, and has delivered keynote addresses at international conferences on teaching and learning. Her selected publications include: “Teaching visualizing the science of genomics”, in Visualization in Science Education (Gilbert, ed.); “Mapping student learning throughout the collaborative inquiry process: the progressive e-poster” (Uniserve Symposium Proceedings); “Computer-aided visualisation in teaching genomics and bioinformatics” (FASEB Journal). Kathy has engaged in arts-science collaborations and her work with Sydney-based sculptor John Nicholson (“The Symbiotic Bacterial Light Project: Luxcorp”) has been exhibited at the Canberra Contemporary Arts Space gallery in Australia’s capital city. She has been awarded the UNSW Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence, the Australian College of Educators State of New South Wales Teaching Award, and the Australian Society for Microbiology David White Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2003 Kathy was selected as a Carnegie Scholar. She is a founding member of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL), served as ISSOTL’s first Regional VP for Australasia, and chaired the 4th ISSOTL Conference in Sydney. Kathy serves on the National Steering Committee of the NSF Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Biology Scholars Program, and Co-Chairs the Biology Scholars Writing Residency Program. In 2008 she was named National Academies Education Fellow in the Life Sciences by the National Research Council. She was also selected to the Curriculum Development Advisory Board for College Board AP Biology in 2008. She is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education and the International Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Kathy has also developed outreach projects for elementary schools and museums, and continues to mentor children from underrepresented groups in the sciences.