Julia Schmitz, Ph.D.

julia_schmitz@med.unc.edu

Medicine

Education

• University of Alabama Birmingham
• Microbiology

Mentors

• Balfour Sartor, Ph.D.

Biography

I am excited to be selected for the SPIRE program. After a field trip to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center during my freshman year of high school in Maryland, I knew I wanted to pursue a scientific career. My scientific career flourished in college at Sweet Briar College where I conducted experiments under the direction of Dr. Robin Davies.

My education continued at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the department of microbiology. I worked under the mentorship of Dr. Robin Lorenz while I studied the role of the gastric ecosystem in Helicobacter-associated gastritis. It was here I realized I wanted to combine a career in science while helping to introduce students to research. I mentored numerous first-year graduate and undergraduate students who worked in my lab at UAB, which allowed me to share my passion for science with others.  I also was able to volunteer at the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, AL where I taught science labs to area high school students.  The students came to the lab to obtain hands-on experience and were able to work with equipment they did not have available in their high school lab.

In the fall of 2008, I joined Dr. Balfour Sartor’s lab at UNC. I am currently working on both an in vivo and in vitro model of chronic intestinal inflammatory disease. I am presently a FIRST IV (Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching) scholar, which enables me to interact with a network of 100 post-docs across the nation formulating concepts for the development of courses. Through my involvement in this, I attend two workshops with a small core of post-docs to evaluate these ideas with each other and then apply them to an undergraduate course. I have been fortunate to have research mentors who have supported my educational goals as well as sharing my excitement over research results. I am enthusiastic about the wonderful opportunities I will gain in SPIRE and I can’t wait to apply what I learn to my semester of teaching.  GO HEELS!