Susan R. Singer, Laurence McKinley Gould Professor of Natural Sciences,
joined the Department of Biology at Carleton in 1986 and has pursued a career that integrates science and education. She has B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees, all from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and completed a teacher certification program in New York State. Susan has directed Carleton’s Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching and worked at the National Science Foundation as a program officer in Developmental Mechanisms. Her biological research focuses on the evolution, genetics, and development of flowering in legumes with an interest in prairie legumes as a biofuel source. NSF supports her flowering research and her research on undergraduate genomics education. She co-authors an introductory biology text and is actively engaged in efforts to improve undergraduate science education. In 2004 she received the Excellence in Teaching award from the American Society of Plant Biology. Within Minnesota she coaches Northfield High School’s Science Olympiad team and works with the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute’s Renewable Energy Roundtable. Nationally she serves on the board of directors for Project Kaleidoscope, for the NSF-funded iPlant cyberinfrastructure collaborative, and for the National Academies’ Board on Science Education. National Academies committee service has included contributions to the Committee on Undergraduate Science Education, the committee that authored America’s Lab Report (chair), the committee that authored Taking Science to School (science consultant), a committee on agriculture education, and the committee on Promising Practices in STEM Undergraduate Education (chair).