Iowa State University Alumni Association| online edition | fall 2006
Nicola Pohl

 


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NICOLA POHL, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
ON SCIENCE, CREATIVITY, AND COOKING

To Nicola Pohl, chemistry and cooking are based on the same principals: They are practical, beautiful, and hands-on.

She enjoys the creative component of both, whether she is looking at the differences in the way plants, animals, and bacteria assemble sugar building blocks to make complex carbohydrates – to screen for pathogen interactions or help in the development of new vaccines – or whipping up a creative new recipe for white chili.

“In cooking and baking, you get a sense for the ingredients,” Pohl said. “You get a sense for what foods you could use a new ingredient with and how it will influence the dish. For example, I tried adding cinnamon to my white chili recipe. I could predict how the cinnamon would enhance the chili. It’s the same with chemistry.”

And cooking and chemistry – especially organic chemistry – both have visual aspects, she said. A once-aspiring pastry chef, Pohl appreciates the nuance of presentation and three-dimensional visualization necessary to the success of plating a German chocolate cake or helping students to see and feel the result of a lab experiment.

“In earlier times, the essence of chemistry and discovery came from tasting, smelling, feeling, or even having an experiment end with a boom,” Pohl said. “Today, students are separated from the chemicals because of safety concerns. That makes chemistry something it isn’t: intuitive.”

To help make chemistry more hands-on for students, Pohl has created a lab curriculum that engages students. When the students perform experiments, they don’t just read from a textbook how it is done; they physically see a change or smell a reaction.
“I’m designing experiments that students can use their senses to experience,” she said. “For example, we introduce reactions that change color or create a familiar smell – like banana or mint. Students now ask why that happened and want to know what caused the reaction.”

Pohl considered a host of creative careers – architecture, painting, and even ballet – before settling on chemistry teaching and research.

“I got into science because I wanted to help people,” Pohl said. “I see that same innate desire to help people in Iowans and the students in my class. But most people don’t clearly see how chemistry helps people. In doing and learning science, you have a positive impact on people’s day-to-day lives.”

That commitment to helping people has been recognized and rewarded by her peers. In 2003, Pohl was named a national Research Corporation Cottrell Scholar. This award recognizes young faculty members who want to teach as well as conduct research. In 2004, she earned the coveted National Science Foundation’s Early CAREER Award, and in 2005 she was named an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow.

But Pohl isn’t all work. In fact, she enjoys a little role reversal by taking classes in unfamiliar subjects to experience again what it means to be a student.

“I want to feel like a student, exposed to something completely new,” she said. “It’s valuable as a teacher to experience that sense of panic and insecurity when you have no idea what is happening. Then you realize you can do it and it’s fun.”

Read on | Ed Yeung: In science, one is not the loneliest number

About the Writer | Kevin Brown is a freelance writer from Pleasant Hill, Iowa.