2007 Teaching Excellence Award-Recipient Heather Carlson

By the time Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry Heather Carlson arrived at U-M in August 2000, she had already established herself as a first-rate scientist.

With a PhD in physical chemistry from Yale University followed by a three year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Diego, she had refined the use of computational methods to predict small molecule interactions with macromolecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids.

In the years since, she has continued to add to her international reputation for research excellence in the areas of quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, molecular mechanics, and database mining techniques used to investigate chemical and enzymatic systems of biomedical importance. In 2006, she received the Wiley International Journal of Quantum Chemistry’s Young Investigator Award; and in 2005, she received the National Science Foundation’s Career Award.

But when she first started teaching PharmD students at U-M, she had, by her own admission, a lot to learn.

“My own best teachers were in math and the physical sci- ences, and that teaching style doesn’t always translate well to teaching pharmacy,” Carlson explains.

The first sign that her approach wasn’t working according to plan came in the form of course evaluations submitted by students taking the Medicinal Chemistry 411 course Carlson taught her first year.

“Several students indicated that they didn’t understand why they had to spend so much time on ‘abstract’ material that wasn’t going to be important in their daily life as a pharmacist,” Carlson recalls. “The truth is that the material I cover is the basic science that underlies everyday pharmacy practice. While it may appear removed and abstract, it will inform their practice for the next 30 plus years.”

So, Carlson reinvented her teaching methods.

“Now, my goal for every lecture is to show PharmD students that they can use basic science to solve new problems in a patient-oriented setting,” says Carlson, who, in addition to teaching Medicinal Chemistry 411 and 534 to PharmD students, also is the primary instructor for a graduate course in drug discovery. “Early each academic year, I explain to PharmD students that if all there was to pharmacy was memorization, they would all be out of a job. Computers are cheaper; they work 24/7, year around, and they never forget. What makes good pharmacists valuable is their ability to solve problems.”

Every lecture to PharmD students ends with a problem-solving section during which Carlson shows students how seemingly “abstract” med-chem material touches their daily lives as pharmacists. On tests and quizzes, she often uses new drugs that she’s never presented in class to illustrate an important point: that by understanding a drug’s structure, students will know what a drug molecule does, even if they haven’t seen it before.

Her new approach has resulted in the ultimate student compliment: Carlson’s selection as the 2007 recipient of the College’s Teaching Excellence Award.

During her recent student evaluation, one student noted that Carlson’s “passion for her course material comes through in all of her lectures”; and that she has a rare ability “to correlate seemingly abstract med-chem concepts with practical clinical applications.” Another student noted Carlson’s willingness to “meet students outside of class. You can tell that she really cares about our learning and about being a good teacher.”

Carlson says the person who most influenced her current teaching style is Pharmacy Professor Rosemary Berardi,PharmD’68, who spoke to a group of colleagues at a mentoring lunch a few years ago.

“She explained how she overhauled her course, trimming back some information she had included for ‘completeness sake’ and reprioritizing the remaining material to that which was absolutely essential for students to master,” Carlson recalls. “This came about the same time I realized I needed to focus my course content on problem-solving. As a result of Rosemary’s insights, I changed my course content and approach to make more time for application of the material.”

So, Carlson reinvented her teaching methods. Teaching Excellence Award or not, Carlson is still working to refine her technique.

“I tend to talk too fast, so in order to compensate, I use overheads with fill-in-the-blanks,” Carlson states. “Overheads may be a little old-fashioned, but they work for me. Because I have to write on the overheads and flip pages, I’m forced to slow down. By slowing down, students have more opportunity to jump in with questions. Now, all I have to do is improve my penmanship and spelling,” she laughs.

E-mail: carlsonh@umich.edu.