Dr. Matthew Schau’s own undergraduate experience at a small liberal arts college formed his desire to teach. At North Park, he enjoys getting to know his students and engaging with them in and out of the classroom and laboratory. “Helping these students accomplish their goals is very rewarding,” he says.

Through his collaborative research with Dr. Drew Rholl and Dr. Jeffrey Nelson that focuses on using molecular techniques to detect and characterize tick-borne disease, he boosted the undergraduate research program to increase the number of students who participate. Since then he has seen students in his lab present posters at the American Society for Microbiology National Conference, land undergraduate research positions in other labs, and gain acceptance into various graduate programs.

In his classes, he uses media articles to engage students in conversations about the ethics of new technologies in the genetics and molecular biology fields. “My hope is to give them both a fundamental understanding of the problem,” exclaims Schau, “and a sense of how their own faith can help them in addressing these questions.”