Kevin Ahern

At Oregon State University I am a Senior Instructor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics where I teach courses largely taken by students pursuing careers in the health sciences.  These are survey classes required by many majors in the life sciences (biology, microbiology, botany/plant pathology, bioengineering) and include BB450/550 and BB 451/551 (General Biochemistry) and BB 350 (Elementary Biochemistry). Other courses I teach include a Synthesis course, BB 332 (Molecular Medicine), an Honors College course, BB 405H (Scientists in the Public Eye), and BB 111 (Introduction to Biochemistry/Biophysics Research).  I am an ardent advocate of the use of technology in the classroom and towards this end I videotape all of my survey course lectures and provide streaming and iPod content of each to students on the Internet.  Each of the survey courses is available twice a year on OSU's Ecampus.  I am the Head Advisor of BB students, the pre-med advisor for all BB students, and a pre-med advisor for selected students in other majors.  I direct OSU's Summer Undergraduate Research Program, funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and serve on curriculum committees for BB and the College of Science. This year I also accepted responsibilities as OSU's Representative for the Goldwater Scholarship.
 

Besides my efforts at OSU, I have a separate career (22 years) as a science writer/editor.  I am presently a contributing editor to BioTechniques and write the monthly WebWatch column for that publication. I wrote a twice monthly column in Genetic Engineering News entitled Best of the Web from 1997-2009. From 1998 to 2003 I was a contributing editor to Science Magazine and served for 12 years as editor of BIOTECHNOLOGY SOFTWARE & INTERNET JOURNAL. I was an author on the Biochemistry textbook (Mathews, van Holde, and Ahern), published by Addison-Wesley Longman in 2000 and provided the material for the General Resources pages of Science Magazine's Online Functional Genomics Web Page.  I created the Metabolic Melodies, a series of biochemistry-related lyrics I wrote to popular melodies.

Recent Publications

Ahern, Kevin and Rajagopal, Indira.  "Photosynthesis is Divine" Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, in press.

Ahern, Kevin.  "Enzymes" Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2009), 37, 260.

Rajagopal, Indira and Ahern, Kevin.  "Central Dogma Zen" Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2009) 37, p. 68.

Ahern, Kevin.  "Gluconeogenesis" Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2008), 36, 443. 

Ahern, Kevin. "Biochemistry Pie," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2008), in press.

Ahern, Kevin.  "When Acids Are Synthesized," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2008), in press

Ahern, Kevin. "Translation," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2008), in press

Ahern, Kevin. "Hemoglobin's Moving Around," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2007) 35, p. 478

Ahern, Kevin. "The Tao of Hormones," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2007) 35, p. 226

Ahern, Kevin. "When Acids Get Oxidized," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2007) 35, p. 78

Ahern, Kevin. "Biochemistry, Biochemistry," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 427

Ahern, Kevin. "The E. coli Song," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 426

Ahern, Kevin "God Rest Ye Merry Lipoproteins," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 425

Ahern, Kevin. "O Little Protein Molecule," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 424

Ahern, Kevin. "Hark the Sucrose," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 423

Ahern, Kevin. "The Vegetarian's Song," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 354.

Ahern, Kevin. "This Biochemistry," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 353.

Ahern, Kevin. "Fatty Acids in Our Cells," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 352.

Ahern, Kevin. "The Cell's Lament," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 351

Ahern, Kevin. "I'm a Little Mitochondrion," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 350

Ahern, Kevin. "The Ribosome," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 288.

Ahern, Kevin. "The Codon Song," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 288.

Ahern, Kevin. "N-A-D," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 208.

Ahern, Kevin. "We All Need Just a Little ATP," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 207.

Ahern, Kevin. "Battle Hymn of Biochemistry," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 206.

Ahern, Kevin. "B-DNA," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 115.

Ahern, Kevin. "The Sound of Glucose," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 114.

Ahern, Kevin. "If You're Molecular and Know It, Clap Your Hands," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 113.

Ahern, Kevin. "Glucagon is Coming Around," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 36.

Ahern, Kevin. "En-er-gy," Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (2006) 34, p. 35.