Open SUNY Online Teaching Ambassador 2017 – Plattsburgh: Linda Luck

Linda A. Luck is a Professor in the Chemistry Department at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. She also holds an Adjunct Professorship in Biochemistry at the University of Vermont Medical College. She received a B.A in Chemistry from SUNY Potsdam, an M.A. in Chemistry from SUNY Plattsburgh and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Vermont. Postdoctoral work was done at the University of Colorado, Boulder and University of Wisconsin, Madison. She held a NIH Fellowship at the University of Vermont Medical College and was a Senior Scientist at the National Institute of Environmental Sciences in Raleigh, NC. After 12 years on the faculty at Clarkson University where she was awarded the prestigious John Graham Jr. Faculty Research Award in 2000, she joined the faculty at SUNY Plattsburgh serving as Chair for three years. She was awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities in 2012. On sabbatical 2014/2015 she was awarded an Erasmus Mundus Scholars Scholarship to do research and teach Molecular Gastronomy in the Food Innovation and Products Design Program at Agro Paris Tech in Paris, France. She has published 44 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and presented her work at over 80 national and international meetings. Her professional areas of interest include structural studies of receptor proteins using Fluorine Nuclear Magnetic Resonance techniques, development of biosensors for environmental estrogens and glucose in tears. She is also involved in Molecular Gastronomy research. She has taught a wide variety of courses including Inorganic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Food Science, Bioinformatics, Physical Biochemistry, NMR Spectroscopy and Molecular Gastronomy. Throughout her teaching she has used computer programs, outside web sources and field trips to educate students. It has been in recent years that she has incorporated online laboratory exercises for the non-majors Biochemistry labs and has developed an online Molecular Gastronomy course.

I feel that online teaching is a natural with our students who live by their devices. As an older professor and a lifetime learner – I am educating myself along with the students. The students learn the science and I learn the new technology. I find this type of teaching- interesting and fun, challenging, and a style that fits my career at this time in my life. I fell that we can teach students our discipline but also life lessons of timeliness, writing, grammar, organization and written as well as live and recorded presentations. Lessons on independent research and exploration of the web are especially important for those who pursue science. Our ultimate goal as educators is to teach our students how to learn—the online format is perfect for this.