Manjusha Saraswathiamma

Manjusha joined M State in 2008. Since then, she has been experimenting with various teaching methods and practices to make undergraduate chemistry courses less petrifying to her students. Her goal is to make chemistry classes more interesting, meaningful and affordable without compromising on the quality. Prior to M State, Manjusha worked as a graduate teaching assistant for general chemistry courses at NDSU. Her graduate-level academic research in chemistry focused on organometallic catalysis and organic synthesis of small-molecule inhibitors for MMP (Graduate Research Assistant, NDSU), homogeneous catalysis for polymer synthesis (Senior Research Fellow, National Chemical Lab, India), and synthesis, characterization and reaction studies of heterogeneous catalysts (MTech Intern, National Chemical lab India). She also brings in expertise in various chemical analysis techniques (MSc Intern, Bhabha Atomic Research Center, India). Manjusha has experience in social science research, as well. She has applied quantitative and qualitative research methods to design a model-based approach to study the attrition of females in engineering profession for her Ph.D. thesis (2010, NDSU). Manjusha has earned a Ph.D. in Adult Education from North Dakota State University (2010-Thesis Title: Understanding the Leaky Engineering Pipeline: Motivation and Job Adaptability of Female Engineers). She has also completed Ph.D.-level coursework in Organic Chemistry at NDSU (2003-2005). Manjusha has a Master of Technology degree in Industrial Catalysis (2000, Cochin University of Science and Technology, India), a Master of Science degree in Inorganic Chemistry (1996, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India) and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry with subsidiary Physics and Mathematics (1994, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India). Manjusha teaches online and campus-based courses. Courses taught: CHEM 1100-Fundamental Concepts in Chemistry; CHEM 1111-General Inorganic Chemistry I, CHEM 1112-General Inorganic Chemistry-II, CHEM2224-Organic Chemistry I, CHEM2225-Organic Chemistry II and CHEM1115-Introduction to Organic and Biochemistry.