Instructor Background

Trish Phelps was trained as a biochemist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she earned her Ph.D. Trish brings over 18 years of research experience in both academia and industry to our program. Some of her previous research projects include areas such as protein engineering, enzyme bioreactors, and environmental bioremediation. She has also taught in a number of institutions before coming to ACC, including the University of Colorado, Southwestern University, and Northwestern State University.

She didn't find out how much fun research could be until she graduated from the University of Iowa with her bachelor's degree and took a job in a Research & Development lab that was working on bioremediation and enzyme bioreactors. "Anyone who enjoys reading mystery novels would love research," she says. "It is a matter of asking questions in your experiment and then interpreting the answers that you get. You can get good answers if you ask the question the right way and pay careful attention what happens. With all the powerful new tools available to us now, this is an exciting time to be getting into biotechnology."

She believes that students shouldn't have to wait until they graduate to learn what fun science can be, and she likes to turn lab exercises into projects that the students can find interesting.

Dr. Phelps office is at EVC 9320. She may be reached at 512-223-5914 or at pphelps@austincc.edu .