Biology Lecturer
M. Ruth Elliott is a senior lecturer in biology for the College of Liberal and Professional Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She started pre-med in her undergraduate career, but she quickly realized that being a scientist was the real dream! After getting her BS in biochemistry at Temple University, she worked as a research technician in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania in a coronavirus lab with Dr. Susan R. Weiss for nine years. Once she’d been in the lab for a while, she trained graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the basics of animal research and primary cell culture. Since she’d always had an interest in teaching, Ruth tutored as a side gig for many years before finally making a career change. Ruth obtained her MS in biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania, and then she taught nursing students at La Salle University while teaching biochemistry to Pre-Health Programs students at Penn. She joined the faculty full time in 2020. She also teaches in the summer high school program and the Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences program. Biochemistry will always be her favorite subject because of its power to explain why the body works the way it does. Ruth enjoys teaching LPS students who bring their varied and unique work and life experiences to the classroom with them.
