The Provost’s Office is excited to extend a warm welcome to Elizabeth Danka, joining the Biology department in Fall 2025!
What excites you most about joining Gustavus Adolphus College?
I am excited to work with students who are really engaged in their classes and looking to make the most of their time in college!
Briefly describe your professional interests.
I study pathogenic bacteria to learn how they interact with their surroundings. One of the biggest projects in my lab is focused on understanding how a protein secretion system is used by our bacteria of interest to interact with hosts and with neighboring bacteria. Students working in the lab with me have discovered a lot of interesting things about this system, have presented their work at regional and national conferences, and published a paper, too! Beyond the research lab, I am also interested in effective and inclusive pedagogy in the sciences and thinking about how we can best support student learning in the classroom and lab.
What aspects of teaching do you find most rewarding?
I think the best part is when students really understand a concept or topic and then they realize that they totally understand it and get excited. This often leads to asking fun questions and making interesting connections with other courses and examples from life.
What are you looking forward to exploring or engaging with in the Saint Peter community outside of your academic work?
I’m looking forward to getting outside and camping and hiking, playing soccer, and finding a fun group of crafters.
If you could have any superpower (related to your field or otherwise), what would it be and why?
This isn’t necessarily a superpower, but I think it would be cool to be one of those people who only needs 4 hours of sleep a night and is perfectly healthy (and not cranky). Think of all the things you could do and see if sleep took up less time in your day! I could do things late into the night and maybe actually be happy to get up early, too!