Faculty & Staff

  • Image of Betty  Slinger

    Betty Slinger

    Teaching Faculty

    2515 Microbial Sciences Building
    Office: (608) 263-6107
    bslinger@wisc.edu

Education

2008 B.A. University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

2016 Ph.D. Biology Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA

NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Chemistry

Areas of Study

Undergraduate teaching

Activities

Currently I coordinate and teach several microbiology courses in the Department of Bacteriology where I serve as an instructor on a rotating basis in our undergraduate microbiology curriculum. I discovered my passion for undergraduate teaching while completing my Biology Ph.D. graduate studies at Boston College. I saw then and continue to see how rewarding it is to help someone else grow and learn new skills that they will take with them for the rest of their life. My passion for microbes has been lifelong, but my graduate and postdoctoral studies allowed me to study a range of bacterial species, including P. aeruginosa, B. multivorans, E. coli, G. kaustophilus, T. thermophilus, A. tumefaciens, and M. smegmatis. My research has always been a blend of biology and chemistry, and I researched the many ways bacteria use proteins, RNA, and small molecules to change gene expression and respond to different environmental stimuli. Along the way I've discovered novel cis-regulatory RNA structures, identified inter-species chemical interactions between B. multivorans and P. aeruginosa, and helped develop novel chemical strategies to control bacterial pathogenesis. My current research interests are largely Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SotL)-based, specifically with projects designed to help students learn microbiological concepts and critical thinking skills using active-learning activities and peer-/self-assessment. In all the classes that I teach I aim to bring my passion for microbiological research as well as build a classroom environment that fosters diverse learning styles and makes everyone feel welcome