This fall quarter I had the privilege of speaking with Dr. Michael Gutierrez. He is an accomplished organic chemistry professor in the La Sierra University chemistry department and conducts an on-campus research lab with the help of students. This winter, he will be taking on a new role as the co-professor for the winter quarter freshman Honors class, The Scientific Process.
Gutierrez did not always want to be a chemist. While in high school, he planned to go the pre-law route but discovered his passion for chemistry during his senior year. “The teacher I had was great,” said Gutierrez. “He was super passionate about [chemistry] and made it really fun and cool.” His teacher’s passion for chemistry and Gutierrez’s abilities in the class pushed him toward pursuing a career in chemistry.
He decided to pursue this passion at La Sierra University and was initially drawn to a career in forensics; however, his interest was piqued by organic chemistry and he began to move down a different pathway. “CSI [crime scene investigation] was really big at the time,” said Gutierrez, explaining why he was into forensics. “But then I kind of switched gears a little bit.” While he stated that he didn’t have the highest grade in organic chemistry, he was interested enough to pursue it in graduate school. Before moving on to graduate school, however, Gutierrez decided to teach high school.
After a few years, Gutierrez returned to school to get his graduate degree and soon after found his fit as a professor at the university he received his undergraduate from, La Sierra University. “I always enjoyed teaching and I knew I wanted to do that. I got my undergraduate degree here at La Sierra and it just kind of fit,” he said. Gutierrez has since been teaching at La Sierra. This winter quarter, Gutierrez will co-teach the freshman Honors class The Scientific Process.
This scientific skills-based course with a lab is meant to help freshmen prepare for research and the scientific world. Typically, there are weekly labs where students complete various activities involving measuring, hypothesizing, and experiment design which differs weekly. The class culminates in a final research paper and project of student choice. Designing experiments and carrying them out with limited resources can be difficult. This quarter, however, Gutierrez hopes to give students a more hands-on research experience with more resources by incorporating his research with Dr. Lloyd Trueblood, his co-professor who is a marine biologist in the Honors program. “We are going to try and guide [students] into a certain area and within that, there will be some variation so they can still have some agency,” Gutierrez said. “This way we are trying to combine both Dr. Trueblood’s and my strengths.”
Gutierrez hopes this will bridge organic chemistry and biology and give students a complete picture of what it means to do research while providing them with more tools. Even if not all the projects and experiments are successful, his goal is to share the reality of research with students through incorporating his projects. “One of the things Dr. Trueblood and I are trying to do is emphasize that this is what research is about. It isn’t going to work every single time,” said Gutierrez, “but sometimes that can lead to even better discoveries.”
Out of this new research experience, Gutierrez is also hoping students gain scientific thinking skills that will be applicable even if they are not STEM students. He wants students to understand the process of thinking, especially when someone is not telling them exactly what to do. “It is about thinking about thinking, trying it out, and possibly failing,” he said, which he believes is a necessary experience for any student. Creating a space for students to try out different things that won’t always work and letting them learn from that experience is the purpose of The Scientific Process class and something that reflects Gutierrez’s journey to becoming a professor. “It is about the journey, not the end goal. You learn whatever you can.”
I am positive students will see that philosophy reflected in Dr. Gutierez’s teachings and class. The best teachers are the ones who have had to learn it for themselves.
—Ema Ludwig, Biochemistry Pre-Medicine, Class of 2027