Vinayak Mathur, PhD

Assistant Professor of Biology

Vinayak Mathur, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Biology. His current research focuses on microbial genomics and application of bioinformatics to answer questions of horizontal gene transfer between bacteria and bacteriophages.

He has a Bachelor of Engineering in biotechnology from the Manipal Institute of Technology in India. He received a doctorate in biology from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied the effect of short-term adult plasticity on climatic adaptation of Drosophila melanogaster. He completed his postdoctoral training from Georgetown University, where he was involved in the Genome Solver Project (qubeshub.org/community/groups/genomesolver).

Mathur is passionate about undergraduate biology education. He researches bioinformatic teaching tools and their implementation in the undergraduate classroom. His teaching style relies heavily on the CURE model (Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience). In the classroom, his students work collaboratively to develop novel research projects and engage with the scientific process.

He teaches Biological Sciences I/II, Bioinformatics, Computational Molecular Biology, and Neuroscience courses and is involved with the senior thesis.