Meet the Dean

Jackie Trischman is excited to begin her first administrative position as Dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. She has been a faculty member at CSUSM since 1995, serving as Academic Senate Chair twice and as Department Chair for Chemistry and Biochemistry for six years.

Dr. Trischman grew up steeped in the world of chemistry with a father who is a chemical engineer and a mother who is a retired analytical chemist. After starting at Virginia Tech as a chemical engineer and working as a co-op student for over a year, she decided to change her major to biochemistry and blended the two fields in what would now be considered a biochemical engineering curriculum. After her B.S., she traveled across the country to attend Scripps Institution of Oceanography where she earned her Ph.D. in marine chemistry. After a Visiting Assistant Professorship at Tulane University and a year as a lecturer at UCSD, Dr. Trischman was hooked on an academic career path. Her favorite parts of the job have been mentoring research students, leading outreach activities such as ChemExpo and SuperSTEM Saturday, and getting the EngiBeering Program launched. She has also been engaged in the local scientific community through her work with the San Diego Section of the American Chemical Society where she serves as a Councilor.

The laboratory Dr. Trischman runs at CSUSM engages in research involving marine and terrestrial natural products chemistry, environmental analyses, and marine microbiology. Her lab aims to equip students with a strong scientific approach that allows application of principles from the classroom to problems they see today in the field of medicine, in the environment, or in their everyday lives. She leads a team of scientists with a profound respect for nature and who endeavor to use their expertise to the benefit of our community. Within the lab, she collaborates with and mentors students of varied backgrounds and academic majors to work together to reach common goals. Dr. Trischman’s love of nature and exploration started at a very young age and was never the same after reading a book entitled “The Silent World” by Jacques Cousteau. She learned French in high school so she could speak with Cousteau if she ever met him. Though that meeting was not meant to be, she did have an extensive conversation, in French, with Jean-Michel Cousteau after only a few weeks as a graduate student at SIO! Though Trischman would argue vehemently that it should be a curious person, she has always been inspired by Jacques Cousteau’s quote:

"What is a scientist after all? It is a curious man looking through a keyhole, the keyhole of nature, trying to know what's going on."