Assistant Vice President, Academic Affairs
Professor of Chemistry

Telephone: (616) 331-3803
Office: 3090 James H. Zumberge Hall (JHZ)
E-Mail: [email protected]

Education

• M.B.A., Seidman College of Business, Grand Valley State University
• Ph.D., Organic & Physical Chemistry, University of North Dakota
• B.S., Chemistry, University of Yaounde I

Teaching Interests

• Organic Chemistry
• Advanced Organic Chemistry
• Spectroscopic Identification of Organic Compounds
• General Chemistry
• General, Organic and Biological Chemistry

Research Interests

• New Avenues to Nucleoside Modification by Transition-Metal Catalysis
• Synthesis of Carcinogen-Nucleoside Adducts
• Synthetic and Computational Studies on Heterogeneous Oligomers
• Modeling the Interaction of Natural Oncogenes with Synthetic Peptides.
• More information on research

Representative Publications

Academic/Professional Activities

• American Chemical Society (ACS)
• ACS Division of Organic Chemistry
• ACS Division of Physical Chemistry
• ACS Division of Chemical Education
• Biophysical Society
• Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society
• American Association for the Advancement of Sciences
• Pi Lambda Theta
• Council of Undergraduate Research

Awards

• 2021      Glenn A. Niemeyer Award Recipient
• 2020      Nominated by the Chemistry Department for the Niemeyer Award
• 2019      Nominated by the Chemistry Department for the Niemeyer Award
• 2018      Nominated by the Chemistry Department for the Niemeyer Award
• 2018      CSCE Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grant-in-Aid
• 2017      MRI: Acquisition of a 400 MHz Spectrometer for Research and Training, 2017-2020
• 2016     CLAS Annual Faculty Service Award
• 2014     Pew Scholar Teacher Grant
• 2014     FTLC Faculty Conference Travel Grant
• 2014     CSCE Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grant-in-Aid
• 2013     CSCE Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grant-in-Aid
• 2012      Distinguished Undergraduate Mentoring Award
• 2011      Outstanding Educator Award GVSU Alumni Association
• 2010     Nominated for the Distinguished Undergraduate Mentoring Award
• 2010      NSF-RET Fellow, Department of Chemical Engineering, Michigan State University
• 2009      Pew Scholar Teacher Grant with Nathan Barrows and Karen Matchett
• 2009      GVSU InterFraternity Council Professor of the Month, March 2009
• 2009      Nominated for the Pew Teaching Excellence Award by CLAS
• 2008     Panhellenic Association Excellence in Teaching Award
• 2008     Nominated for the Pew Teaching Excellence Award
• 2008      Nominated as an Outstanding GVSU Faculty Member, Faculty Recognition Banquet
• 2008     Nominated by Students and Chosen by the EAC to Speak at the “Last Lecture Series”
• 2008     Nominated as “Someone Who Makes a Difference at GVSU” Office of Residence Life
• 2008     GVSU Michigan Science Olympiad Regional Tournament Award
• 2008      Summer Scholars Program S³ Award Grand Valley State University
• 2008      Pew FTLC Teaching Development Travel Grant
• 2008      Pew FTLC Student Enrichment Travel Grant
• 2008      Scholarly Travel Grant-in-Aid, Faculty Research and Development
• 2008      Student Scholarly Travel Grant-in-Aid, Faculty Research and Development
• 2008      Inducted Into Beta Gamma Sigma, Academic Honor Society for Top Business Students
• 2007     ESP (Educational Support Program) Professor of the Year, GVSU
• 2007     Summer Scholars Program S³ Award Grand Valley State University
• 2007      Presidential Teaching Initiative Grant with Mary Karpen and Julie Henderleiter
• 2007      Scholarly Travel Grant-in-Aid, Faculty Research and Development
• 2005      Grant-in-Aid for Research Grand Valley State University
• 2005      Scholarly Travel Grant-in-Aid, Faculty Research and Development
• 2005      Pew FTLC Teaching Development Travel Grant
• 2004      Summer Scholars Program S³ Award Grand Valley State University
• 2002      WHO’S WHO among Students in American Universities and Colleges
• 2002      Selected to Pi Lambda Theta                              
• 2002      Dr. Roland G. Severson Graduate Teaching Award, Department of Chemistry, University of North Dakota (UND)
• 2002      NSF ND-EPSCoR Fellowship to perform research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison
• 2001      Doctoral dissertation fellowship, NSF ND-EPSCoR
• 2001      Dr. Roland G. Severson Graduate research award for excellence, UND
• 2001      Dr. Ernest and Jennie Coon Scholarship, University of North Dakota Foundation
• 2000      Grant-in-Aid for Research, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society
• 2000     Selected and accepted membership of Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society