Jan Serie Research Fellowship
The Jan Serie Fellowship for Student-Faculty Research at Macalester College
Professor Jan Serie (1952-2008)
Jan Serie, Ph.D., O.T. Walter Professor of Biology, was a visionary who helped shape Macalester College over three decades. Her leadership and innovation crossed disciplinary boundaries and was instrumental in shaping the education and training of students as well as the careers of her faculty colleagues. Professor Serie was a legend in the classroom and mentored dozens of students doing independent research in immunology. She chaired both the Biology and the Women’s and Gender Studies Departments, and was the inaugural director who served for six years in the Center for Scholarship and Teaching at Macalester. Over her career, she won numerous awards for her teaching as well as her leadership across campus. In 2008, the Center was renamed in her memory as the Jan Serie Center for Scholarship and Teaching.
Professor Serie’s career of teaching, research, and administration at Macalester began in 1983. During this time she taught thousands of students and inspired many to pursue professional careers in medicine, biology, and other fields. Professor Serie taught multiple biology courses, including Cellular and Molecular Biology, Genetics, Physiology, Immunology, Biotechnology and Society, and the popular course she created in the mid-1980’s called Women, Health and Reproduction.
An outstanding classroom teacher, Serie was also nationally recognized in the area of curriculum development and as a researcher in the areas of immunology and diabetes. For her achievements in and outside the classroom, Serie was honored with many teaching and educator awards, including the Minnesota College Science Teacher of the Year Award by the Minnesota Academy of Science, the Four-Year College Teaching Award by the National Association of College Biology Teachers, the Sears Award for Excellence in Teaching and Campus Leadership by Macalester College, and, in 2006, the Thomas Jefferson Award, also by Macalester. At the time of her death, Macalester President Brian Rosenberg reflected, “Jan Serie has, directly or indirectly, touched the life of virtually everyone who has been part of the Macalester community for the past 25 years. No one here has been more important to the life of the college, and she will be enormously missed.”
Serie Fellows:
2010: Estela Shabani
2011: Tijana Martinov
2012: Nathan Scheiner
2013: Alyssa Ashbaugh
2014: Antsa Randriamihaja
2015: Brett Hahn
2016: Alexander Dash
2017: Rohit Kamath
2018: Winnie Chen
2019: Melissa Blum
2020: Nick Velikonja & Phoebe Fu
2021: Ryan Davies
2022: Nicole Bednarik & Ronan Wallace
2023: Masa Holocsi
The Jan Serie Endowment Fund for Student-Faculty Research was established in 2005 by Karen J. Brasel, M.D., class of 1987 Biology Major, in honor of Professor Jan Serie to support student-faculty collaborative research.
The Jan Serie Fellowship for Student-Faculty Research at Macalester College
The Jan Serie Fund was created to support student-faculty collaborative research and will be awarded as a fellowship (called the Jan Serie Research Fellowship) to provide stipend support of $6250 for a student doing full time research during the summer (at least 10 weeks) in any area of science or math. Research may take place at Macalester or another site.
Any Macalester student is eligible to apply. The fellowship will be awarded based on the strength of the application and letters of recommendation. Applicants should have a GPA above 3.3. Because Professor Serie had an extraordinary gift of crossing traditional disciplinary lines, projects that bring together ideas or transcend boundaries (disciplinary, geographic, etc.) are especially encouraged. Proposed projects may be from any scientific or mathematical discipline; projects related to natural science, health or medicine, public health, and/or those with multidisciplinary emphases will be given priority. Students are encouraged to talk with Professor Liz Jansen about their plans to apply.
At the end of the summer, Jan Serie Fellowship recipients will be expected to present their research at the annual summer research showcase at Macalester in the fall and to submit a one-page summary of the research project and experience by the first day of fall semester.
If you have questions, contact Professor Liz Jansen ([email protected]) or Liz Karlen ([email protected])