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Professor Geetu Tuteja joins GDCB faculty

Geetu Tuteja
Professor Geetu Tuteja

Professor Geetu Tuteja has joined the GDCB faculty effective July 2015 as a tenure-eligible assistant professor and a Gregory L. and Kathleen C. Geoffroy Faculty Fellow. The Geoffroy Fellowship was established by Gregory L. and Kathleen C. Geoffroy to attract the very best junior faculty to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS). Dr. Gregory L. Geoffroy, a chemist, served as Iowa State’s president from 2001-2012. The Fellowship, awarded at the discretion of the Dean of LAS, will provide funds to support the teaching and research program of Dr. Tuteja during the first three years of her faculty appointment

Dr. Tuteja’s lab will study transcriptional regulation in early placental development. “Not a lot is known about placental development,” Dr. Tuteja notes, ”even though it can influence the health of mother and baby during pregnancy, as well as later in life.”

Dr. Tuteja has always been interested in math and biology. She recalls that “as an undergraduate, I majored in computer science because the approach to problem solving appealed to me. While I enjoyed doing computer science work, my real interest was still in biology.” She continues that “when I learned that the human genome project was completed, and about genomics in general, I knew this was the perfect field for me – it would allow me to apply my computer science skills to gain a better understanding of biological processes.”

Plans are for Dr. Tuteja to teach starting fall 2016. Her primary teaching interests are in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. In particular, she would enjoy teaching a computational course to students that have a background primarily in Biology.

Outside the lab, Dr. Tuteja enjoys baking and biking and says that when time permits she would like to get back into jewelry making.

We welcome Dr. Tuteja to the GDCB department and family.