I strive to guide students so that they can learn to design meaningful experiments and develop the ability to think independently and critically about important scientific problems. In the classroom I aim to make fundamental scientific concepts make sense and have real world context so that they will not see the laboratory and the classroom as unrelated worlds. I am particularly interested in teaching students the importance of being analytical and thorough, but not to forget that science, especially research, is a creative pursuit, in which thinking of new and innovative ways to tackle a problem is not only encouraged but essential to successful research. I make sure during my teaching of general chemistry to make the classroom interactive, and have students actively answer questions rather than lecturing to them. I aim to keep students engaged and ask periodically throughout the semester for their feedback. I incorporate suggestions they make when they are appropriate and this gives the students a sense of responsibility and ownership over the class and the way in which they learn and respond to materials they are being taught. I specialize in biochemistry, chemical biology, chemistry and structure of nucleic acids, synthesis and characterization of nanoscale materials.