University of Virginia students interested in organic chemistry this semester may have noticed two professors with the same last name on the course list. For the first time, Laura and Vlad Serbulea, mother and son, are teaching the same subject at the same time.
The pair have been at UVA for 12 years now. Vlad began his doctorate in pharmacology in 2012 and Laura began teaching in the chemistry department that same year.
A doctorate and a postdoctoral fellowship later, Vlad is also part of the UVA faculty, working as an assistant research professor of pharmacology. He’s taught vascular biology for the past four years and, when looking for more teaching opportunities, found himself teaching a course similar to the one his mother has taught for more than a decade.
This semester, Vlad Serbulea is teaching CHEM 2410: Organic Chemistry 1. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)
“My mom helps me a lot, of course,” he said. “She’s the master and I’m just trying to catch up.”
To this, Laura said they are both learning from each other. “Like any individuals, we have our own ways of how to do things in the classroom, guided by our own experiences and what worked for us as students ourselves,” she said.
She recalls a high school teacher she had who used to read directly from the book every class. “I thought to myself, ‘I don’t see myself teaching, but if I ever do, I will never hold anything in my hand.’”
Her interest in chemistry, which developed in high school in Romania, came as a surprise to her. “I had no thoughts of pursuing chemistry, but I had this one teacher who doubted me, and I worked very hard to prove her wrong,” she said. “It wasn’t love at first sight, more a slow burn.”
As she has done since joining UVA in 2012, Laura Serbulea is teaching accelerated organic chemistry classes this year. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)
Vlad also became interested in chemistry in high school and went on to pursue chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara. As an undergraduate, he took a course called Drug Design that walked students through the process of designing a drug from scratch. Vlad said that course set him on a pharmacology path he has continued at UVA.
As a doctoral candidate, Vlad worked with Norbert Leitinger, a UVA pharmacology professor, on diabetes-related research. As a postdoctoral fellow, he researched with Gary Owens, the Robert M. Beirne Professor of Cardiovascular Research, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, on ways to prevent heart attacks and strokes.
In the chemistry department, Laura teaches accelerated classes, designed for students who took more than one chemistry course in high school.
People regularly ask her, Laura said, if she isn’t tired of teaching the same class, “and the reality is, even though it’s the same course, it’s never really the same class. New students bring new perspectives.”
