MICHAEL D VERSHININ portrait
  • Member, Center for Cell and Genome Science
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor, School Of Biological Sciences
  • Assistant Professor, Physics And Astronomy
801-581-5803

Current Courses

Fall 2024

  • PHYS 4210-001
    Optics in Biology
  • PHYS 4800-003
    Undergraduate Research
  • PHYS 6210-001
    Optics in Biology
  • PHYS 6859-025
    Instrumentation Project
  • PHYS 6950-028
    Special Reading Topics:
  • PHYS 7910-028
    Special Reading Topics:

Summer 2024

Spring 2024

Professional Organizations

  • Sigma Xi scientific research honor society. 10/2020 - present. Position : Member.
  • American Society of Cell Biology. 04/2016 - present. Position : Member.
  • Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society. 09/1996 - present. Position : Member.

Teaching Philosophy

I have taught a wide range of classes at the University of Utah, including a large introductory class (Physics 2020), several medium size classes (PHYS 4410/4420) and smaller more specialty classes (PHYS 4230/6230/6231, and PHYS 7730). I have accumulated and analyzed all feedback from students and colleagues to refine my teaching approach, including the indirect feedback such as homework and exam performances. I have also periodically engaged CTLE (Center for Teaching & Learning Excellence) to collect feedback and thereby to improve course design, teaching delivery, and various organizational aspects of a class.

For the classes I teach, my level of instruction is designed to challenge the students but not to overwhelm them. I try to personally engage the few students who are not doing well and gently push and support them. I email students if they miss a couple of homework assignments and also discuss test results with them. I am also very available outside of class of course, beyond strict office hours.

In the future, I would like to continue expanding the curriculum in biophysics – advanced biophysics classes are sorely needed both from an academic learning perspective and as an important building block to similarly broad efforts in research. I feel that the greatest need is a biophysics journal club class, similar to journal class courses in many other biomedical departments on campus but with emphasis squarely on biophysics. My experience as a PI and an educator is that the culture of reading primary sources is not introduced to students early enough or emphatically enough.