Adjunct Associate Professor of Biology, Wesleyan University
Laurel F. Appel was Adjunct Associate Professor of Biology at Wesleyan University, and Director of the Wesleyan McNair Program until her tragic death in 2012. We all miss her very much. With a research background in developmental genetics, she taught courses at Wesleyan University in genetics and development, with particular interest in how to make genetics approachable for beginning majors and non-majors. She worked with various groups on science outreach and public understanding of science. She worked with Liz Lerman and dancers of the Dance Exchange since 2003, first as a scientific advisor, then as an experimenter, co-developing embodied learning sessions in various Wesleyan genetics courses. In her education as a scientist, earning her chemistry AB at Oberlin College, and Biophysical Chemistry MS and Genetics PhD at the University of California at Berkeley, she never imagined dance would ever enter her professional life. You never know.
