Nitya Jacob

Dr. Nitya Jacob has been a member of the Oxford College faculty since the Fall semester of 2002.  She was born and raised in Ahmednagar, India. She received her B.A. in Biology with Honor, Phi Beta Kappa, from Agnes Scott College in 1995 and her Ph.D. in Horticulture and Crop Science from The Ohio State University in 2000.  From 2000-2002 she was an NSF Teaching Postdoctoral Associate at Knox College.  Dr. Jacob served as the Chair of the Biology department from 2008-2017.  She is currently the Chair of the Natural Science and Mathematics Division. Her expertise is in the area of plant biotechnology, cell biology, genetics, molecular biology, and applied biology. She teaches courses at the introductory level which incorporate these topics. Among her scholarship interests is to develop pedagogy emphasizing student-centered learning and studying its impact, particularly in the first two years of college education.  She incorporated authentic research into the introductory biology curriculum for which she received the AAAS-Science Inquiry-Based Instruction (IBI) Prize in 2011.  Dr. Jacob started the summer undergraduate research program for STEM students to Oxford College in 2006, partnering with the Summer Undergraduate Research at Emory (SURE) program, and served as its director from 2006-2012. She remains involved in research within her discipline, particularly investigating microbial communities associated with granite outcrop plants. Past projects also included the study of nodule-expressed genes in Rhizobium-alfalfa symbiosis and regulation of anionic peroxidase genes.   

Dr. Jacob has received several teaching awards including the 2004 Award for Exemplary Teaching at a methodist-related institution of higher education, and the 2011 Emory Williams Award for Distinguished Teaching. She has been recognized for excellent teaching by multiple students inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society chapter at Emory University. Dr. Jacob also received the Association of Southeastern Biologists' 2005 Faculty Research Award for her paper on tobacco gene regulation.

Beyond Oxford College and Emory University, Dr. Jacob served two terms as an elected Biology Division Councilor in the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR).  She is an American Society of Microbiology Biology Scholar (2011 Assessment Residency) and served as a mentor for the program.  In 2012, she was selected, in a competitive national search, by the joint initiative of Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health – National Institute of General Medical Studies to be one of 40 Vision and Change Leadership Fellows for the Partnerships in Life Sciences Education (PULSE) project. The mission of PULSE to stimulate national transformation of undergraduate biology education using a department-level focus.  She continues to be an active leader in PULSE, currently serving as a PULSE Ambassador to engage biology departments across the nation in creating a vision and action plan for change. Dr. Jacob is the Co-Principal Investigator on several National Science Foundation grant awards that fund transformation of undergraduate education.

Music has always been a special interest for Dr. Jacob. She has been trained in Indian classical vocal music and Western choral music. Dr. Jacob performed with the Oxford College Chorale for several years. She also enjoys photography and reading classic literature. Dr. Jacob travels to India periodically to spend time with family and was a leader for Emory University’s Journeys of Reconciliation trip to India in 2007.