Lesa Tran is an Associate Teaching Professor and Assistant Chair in the Department of Chemistry. She received her B.S. (2007), M.A. (2009), and Ph.D. (2012) in Chemistry from Rice University. As an NSF Graduate Research Fellow under the mentorship of Prof. Lon J. Wilson, Tran studied the development of gadolinium-loaded carbon nanostructures as medical agents to enhance stem cell retention and MRI detection in cardiomyoplasty.

She joined the Rice teaching faculty in 2012 to transform how General Chemistry is taught by developing an inquiry-based learning model known as the Student-Centered Active Learning at Rice (SCAL@R) method. With her colleagues, Tran studies how the SCAL@R method impacts student learning. Tran also teaches the Chemistry of Cooking, which is taught in collaboration with Rice Dining staff and Houston-area chefs. In recognition of her teaching excellence, Tran was named a Faculty Fellow of the Center for Teaching Excellence (2018-2024) and is the recipient of the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching (2019, 2021, 2024), the Brown Foundation Teaching Grant (2014, 2019, 2023), and a Teaching Innovation Fund (2018).

Tran previously served as the Executive Director of the Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering (IBB), overseeing its strategic initiatives and academic programs, including the Systems, Synthetics, and Physical Biology (SSPB) Ph.D. Program and the Bioelectronics NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program. In 2024, Tran served as Interim Executive Director of the Rice Synthetic Biology Institute.

Tran is also deeply committed to undergraduate student life at Rice. She formerly served as a Faculty Resident Associate at Sid Richardson College (2018-2020) and is currently a Divisional Advisor for the School of Natural Sciences (2015-present), a member of several university committees, and a faculty sponsor to multiple student-taught courses.

CURRENT COURSES TAUGHT

• CHEM 121/122: General Chemistry I and II

• CHEM 178: Chemistry of Cooking