Teaching Science
The Story
Imagine my joy at being tapped by Howard Malmstadt to be the TA in the course he was launching to teach chemistry graduate students how to develop electronics devices for their research. There was no text or model for the lab, so we had to make it up as we went along. The devices we made for wiring and testing circuits became the workstation sold by Heath Company (shown in the picture used to illustrate this category) The accompanying text was adopted by hundreds of chemistry and physics departments.
The evolution of electronics from vacuum tubes through transistors and integrated circuits kept Howard, Stan Crouch, and me working on updates for the next couple of decades.
My other work in teaching was aimed at finding the principles behind the practice of chemical analysis. This included the text, The Art and Science of Chemical Analysis which is based on the selection of the differentiating characteristic rather than on techniques. I also would emphasize how measurements produce meaningful numbers as written about in the Data Domains and Measurement Science articles listed below. I probably would not use a textbook for a class, if I were teaching today. I would assign things for students to discover from resources on the web and in the library. And I would include the metaphorical quality of explanations, the tested boundaries of the laws, and the conditions we know about where they don’t work as developed in the category Philosophy.
The others involved in this work are Howard Malmstadt, Stanley Crouch, James Avery, and James Holler.
Mentoring Graduate Students
One of the great joys of teaching at a research university is that of guiding students as they transition from being educated to becoming professional scientists. Sixty-nine students obtained their doctorates under my guidance. Their names and years of graduation are listed below. There were also a number of postdoctoral associates and young faculty mentees that I tried to help along.
Ph.D. graduates and their year
2000 Nadja Cech, Bruce Wilcox, Jun Zhang
1999 Terri Constantopoulos, Tina Erickson
1997 Paul Miyares, Fei Liu Overney
1996 Eric Hemenway, Qinchung Ji, Calin Znamirovschi
1995 Douglas Beussman, Ronald Lopshire, Paul Vlasak
1993 Richard McLane, Mary Seeterlin
1991 Stephen Chan, Mark LaPack, Jon Wahl
1990 Mark Cole, Amidollah Salari, George Yefchak
1989 Eric Erickson, Kevin Hart, Norman Penix
1988 Brian Eckenrode, Kathleen Fix, Peter Palmer, Adam Schubert
1987 Michael Kristo
1986 Mark Bauer, Lynn Chakel, Hugh Gregg
1985 Kevin Cross, Robert Engerer, John Stults
1983 Peter J. Aiello, Carl Myerholtz, Bruce Newcome
1982 Jiin-Wu Chai, John A. Chakel, Ching-Cherng Lii
1981 Hsiao-Yung Guh, R. Kazmer Latven, Sechoing Lin
1980 Paul D. Tyma
1979 Inna Deng, Timothy Kelly, Richard A. Yost
1978 Erik Carlson , Edward Darland, James E. Hornshuh, Spyros Hourdakis, Minchen Wang
1977 F. James Holler, Thomas Last
1975 Timothy Nieman
1974 Keith Caserta, Brian Keith Hahn
1972 Thomas Niemczyk, David Wenke
1971 Bob Bleasdell, Janet Kudirka
1970 Donald Johnson
1969 Peter Daum
1966 Ronald L. Brubaker, G. Daniel Robbins, Michael J.R. Vasile
1965 William Weir
1963 Louis Ramaley
All went on to careers in industry, private or national labs, or teaching. The trajectory of those who became academics is the easiest to follow. They include Louis Ramaley (Dalhousie U.), Bill Weir (Reed College), Pete Daum (Northern Illinois U.), Don Johnson (Central Oregon College), Tom Niemczyk (U. of New Mexico), Tim Nieman (U. of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana), Jim Holler (U. of Kentucky), Rick Yost (U. of Florida), Pete Palmer (San Francisco State U.), Doug Beussman (St. Olaf College), and Nadja Cech (U. North Carolina, Greensboro). Except for Pete, Doug and Nadja, they have now all retired or passed on.
It’s fun to think of the dozens of academic grandchildren they have spawned. If you were a student of any of the above teachers, I would love to hear from you.