PMB Classes Popular in China

January 23, 2012

Professors visit for extended stays.

   Prof. Andy Jackson teaching in China

    Several Plant and Microbial Biology professors have been visiting China for extended stays recently, teaching courses that were extremely popular and well-received.

   In fall 2011 Professor Andy Jackson taught Comparative Virology at China Agricultural University in Beijing, covering the material in PMB114, the course he teaches at UC Berkeley with Assistant Professor Britt Glaunsinger. Jackson also taught Plant RNA Viruses, an intensive course (27 hours of lectures over 3 weeks) at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou

   Professor Sheila McCormick taught a truncated version (five 1.5 hr. meetings, over 2 weeks) of PMB210 (Scientific Logic and Reasoning) at the Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology (SIPPE), in 2009 and 2011, and at Peking University in Beijing in 2010.

Professor Andy Jackson with his class in China   The students were from diverse institutions and departments, including bioinformatics, biology, neuroscience and plant physiology. The courses were over subscribed - for example, in Shanghai in 2011, there were 38 applicants for 16 places.  The students enjoyed the opportunity. One student in Shanghai in 2011 said, "What a pity it is we cannot attend a full-length course just as given in Berkeley."   Associate Professor Frank Harmon will teach a shortened version of his PMB200 module on Systems Biology at SIPPE in spring 2012.    

   In 2011 McCormick also led a writing workshop for faculty from three institutions (SIPPE, East China Normal University, and Shanghai Normal University) who were actively working on manuscripts.