ERIK JORGENSEN

I currently teach primarily graduate student classes, including BIOL6140, Advanced Genetics and NS6040 Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience.  I also oversee the lab class BIOL5960 Eukaryotic Genetics Lab in the Fall and BIOL5960 Microscopy and Cell Biology Lab in the Spring.  It is  currently taught by postdoctoral fellows from the School of Biological Sciences.  It provides hands on experience for undergraduate students and provides them with an understanding of how and why the lab techniques were developed.  It also provides postdocs an additional teaching opportunity. 

My trainees have included high school students, undergraduate students, graduate students, visiting graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. I hold one-on-one meetings with graduate students bi-weekly (weekly for 1^st year students).  In addition, graduate student progress is monitored by their thesis committee (4 faculty and chair). The committee meets individually with each student, as well as with their mentors, to discuss goals and progress. Progress of senior students is also reviewed independently by the Departmental Graduate Program Committee consisting of head of Graduate Studies and Chair.

Students and postdocs from my laboratory have gone on to successful careers in science, including faculty positions at Yale University, University of Washington, Ecole Normale Supérieure-Paris, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Michigan. Three were, or are currently, chairs of their departments.  Others have gone on to careers as faculty at four-year colleges, in science communications, in industry (Genentech, Myriad Genetics, Recursion, Plexium, Wormbase, Bruker Nano, Intel, Google) and in the law (Intellectual Property).  

       Jorgensen lab trainees have many opportunities to present their research in weekly lab meetings, departmental seminars, at HHMI scientific meeting and at scientific conferences. Lab members are encouraged to share their expertise and to collaborate with others – in particular other labs that need help in imaging, molecular techniques, or nematode genetics.  Graduate students all serve as TAs for 1 or 2 semesters, and postdocs have the opportunity to organize and teach a lab course if that is their preferred career trajectory. These teaching opportunities have included traditional courses, as well as short or semester-long courses developed by lab members, including ‘DNA Assembly Workshop’, ‘Microscopy Bootcamp’ and the interdisciplinary course ‘Genetics and Society’. Current postdocs and graduate students have been instrumental in developing and teaching the undergraduate course ‘Eukaryotic Genetics Lab’ and ‘Cell Biology and Microscopy Lab’ running since 2022.  Off campus, I have been a Lecturer for the annual summer Neurobiology course at the Marine Biology Laboratory and at the European Cajal Initiative Synapse Biology Course in France.  Jorgensen lab postdocs and graduate students have assisted with these courses.  All graduate students and postdocs also have their own mentoring opportunities, overseeing a high school student or undergraduate research project in the lab.  Senior graduate students and postdocs may also mentor a graduate rotation student or an undergraduate research project.

Lab members have contributed to a large number of peer-reviewed publications (100+) and many have successfully applied for extramural support including from the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, EMBO, Helen Hay Whitney Foundatio , Jane Coffin Childs Foundation, Epilepsy Foundation, Lowe Syndrome Foundation, Brainn and Behavior Research Foundation, University of Utah Seed Grants, and State of Utah USTAR. International awards include EMBO, Human Frontiers, the Lundbeck Foundation (Denmark), and the Fulbright Fellowship (Mexico), Several have received National Institutes of Health NRSA fellowships, NIH K99 Award, independent NIH R01 awards and National Science Foundation grant awards.  Graduate students have received recognition for best Ph.D. thesis in the School of Biological Sciences, and in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Utah.  One student received the Nemko Award from the Society of Neuroscience for best Ph.D. thesis and the German Physiology award.  A Physics PhD student received the Lustig Award from the American Physical Society.