Chemically Me:

After my Ph.D. in Soil Chemistry (how I got there is a story for Anthropologically Me) I decided that chemistry was for me.

Making the final transition to Electrochemist was difficult because I had no chemistry degree and pedigrees are important. After post-docs at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Northwestern University I was hired as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Loyola University Chicago.

I had several areas of focus in my research career (70+ peer reviewed articles, multiple grants from the National Science Foundation). My initial work drew from my expertise in clays and electrochemistry (pdf). I explored how electroactive compounds interacted with clays. At the same time I was teaching an advanced course for analytical instrumentation course which won two national awards: one 3rd place student submitted project for an environmental award from Anheuser Busch. I won the national Giddings Award for Teaching in Instrumental Analysis from the American Chemical Society for this class. Students in this service learning “lead lab” sampled Chicago soils to create maps of soil lead in several areas of the city. If you wank to “geek” out you can pursue my active learning excel sheets at this “Lead Lab Teaching Instrumenation with One Analyte” link. Based on this work I developed an interest in archeological lead exposure measured by lead in teeth. This interest eventually lead to a book on lead for Oxford University Press. My teaching career led me to participate in building the Analytical Sciences Digital Library. Back on the research front I began investigations the electrochemical activity of microorganisms on clay. Meanwhile, I initiated a National Science Foundation funded project on the sharing of instrumentation internationally (pdf) where students could, through the internet, control instrumentation in our laboratory from Kenya and Tanzania. Throughout my entire career I was writing. That’s a story for Theatrically Me.