My teaching interests are in the area of physical chemistry.

Teaching Philosophy

I have found teaching to be a challenging yet gratifying experience. Communicating my enthusiasm for the subject to students and engaging their interest in the material is a mutually rewarding enterprise. I welcome feedback and questions from students during and outside class time, and I am generally available, either in person or by e-mail.

In class, I often use Powerpoint, computer-aided graphics, and an overhead projector but I rely primarily on chalk and blackboard. I have found that this low-tech approach is the best one for most topics because I can describe the mathematics and assumptions made as I write out the equations and derivations. I go through detailed examples in class and ensure that students work out examples on their own. I wholeheartedly endorse the observation of the Chinese sage who noted "I hear, I forget; I see, I remember; I do, I understand."

My goal is to teach students the fundamentals of physical chemistry in a manner that enables them to solve problems in this field, thereby developing problem solving skills that are transferable to other areas.

Because many problems of a chemical nature are too difficult to do with pencil and paper, I have developed an interest in computational chemistry as a teaching tool.