Faculty & Staff

Profiles

Timothy D. Paustian
Teaching Professor - Distinguished

2517 Microbial Sciences Building
Office: (608) 263-4921
paustian@wisc.edu

Education

B.S., Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison 1985
Ph.D., Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison 1989

Research Overview

My research focuses on microbiology education. I have led or been on several teams working on developing and using concept inventories to determine students' mastery of microbiology and immunology. My current research involves helping students increase their performance on multiple-choice exams.

Teaching

Microbiology 303: Biology of Microorganisms
Microbiology 304: Biology of Microorganisms Laboratory
Microbiology 527: Physiology of Microorganisms Laboratory
Microbiology 551: Physiological Diversity of Procaryotes Laboratory

Affiliations

The courses in the major are taught on a rotational basis, and I teach Microbiology 303, Microbiology 304, Microbiology 527 and Microbiology 551 in various years. I am also active in the scholarship of teaching: participating in seminars, presentations, and publications. Other responsibilities include:

• Author of Through the Microscope an online microbiology textbook, Why Microbes Matter a book for the general public, and Virtual Microbiology
• Serving on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education.

Recent publications

Dow, E. G., Wood-Charlson, E. M., Biller, S. J., Paustian, T., Schirmer, A., Sheik, C. S., Whitham, J. M., Krebs, R., Goller, C. C., Allen, B., Crockett, Z., & Arkin, A. P. (2021). Bioinformatic Teaching Resources – For Educators, by Educators – Using KBase, a Free, User-Friendly, Open Source Platform. Frontiers in Education, 6, 369. DOI

Ramsey, J., McIntosh, B., Renfro, D., Aleksander, S. A., LaBonte, S., Ross, C., Zweifel, A. E., Liles, N., Farrar, S., Gill, J. J., Erill, I., Ades, S., Berardini, T. Z., Bennett, J. A., Brady, S., Britton, R., Carbon, S., Caruso, S. M., Clements, D., … Hu, J. C. (2021). Crowdsourcing biocuration: The Community Assessment of Community Annotation with Ontologies (CACAO). PLoS Computational Biology, 17(10), e1009463. Pubmed DOI

Justement, L. B., Bruns, H. A., Elliott, S., Sletten, S., Sparks-Thissen, R., Condry, D., Wisenden, B., Lal, A., Paustian, T., Mixter, P. F., Taylor, R., Pritchard, R., Vanniasinkam, T., Dorsam, G., Freier, D., & Pandey, S. (2020). Development of Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Immunology Education –a Report by a Task Force on Undergraduate Immunology Curriculum Guidelines. The Journal of Immunology, 204(1_Supplement), 222.17-222.17. DOI

Paustian TD, Briggs AG, Brennan RE, Boury N, Buchner J, Harris S, Horak REA, Hughes LE, Katz-Amburn DS, Massimelli MJ, McDonald AH, Primm TP, Smith AC, Stevens AM, Yung SB. 2017. Development, Validation, and Application of the Microbiology Concept Inventory. J Microbiol Biol Educ 18:1–10. Pubmed . DOI

Briggs AG, Hughes LE, Brennan RE, Buchner J, Horak REA, Amburn DSK, Mcdonald AH, Primm TP, Smith AC, Stevens AM, Yung SB, Paustian TD. 2017. Concept Inventory Development Reveals Common Student Misconceptions about Microbiology. J Microbiol Biol Educ 18:1–9. Pubmed . DOI

Faculty & Staff

Profiles

Timothy D. Paustian

Education

Research Overview

Teaching

Affiliations