Izzy Muise

Biography

I was born and raised in Cary, North Carolina, but moved to California for college and have been here ever since. I earned my BS in chemistry with a minor in planetary science at Caltech.

My research in astrochemistry continued at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In college, I was a teaching assistant for the introductory chemistry lab that was required of every undergraduate, and I really enjoyed having the opportunity to teach chemistry to students who didn’t necessarily come into the class with a love for or understanding of the material. I loved getting to show students that anyone can be a chemist, and that everyone has something to gain from learning science in a hands-on setting!

After Caltech, I went on to receive my M.S. in Physical Chemistry from UC Davis. I loved getting to dig deeper into the overlap between chemistry and physics in my coursework, studying mass spectrometry as a tool for metabolomics, and writing a thesis on the optimization of an analytical method for detecting lipids. I continued to work as a teaching assistant at UC Davis in the chemistry and food science departments. After graduating, I worked as a chemist in the pharmaceutical industry, analyzing biological samples from drug discovery studies.

To me, science is so beautiful and fascinating, and I love sharing that perspective with students. As an educator, I prioritize patience, flexibility, and accessibility in learning, which fits perfectly with the one-on-one education model at AJ Tutoring. I want every student to leave our sessions knowing that they are capable of understanding challenging concepts and, more generally, doing difficult things.  

In addition to science, I love professional wrestling, dancing, community organizing, starting craft projects, playing the ukulele, and trying out new hobbies.