Professor Emeritus of Chemistry

  I have taught at Thiel College since 1964 and hold the faculty rank of

  Professor Emeritus. Although officially retired as of June 1998,

  remain active professionally.

Educational Background

My Interests

My research interests are in using computer simulations to study molecular dynamics (the interactions that occur between atoms and molecules). I am especially intrigued by the molecular clusters that are formed by small groups of atoms or ions and that become the starting points for the formation of crystalline solids.

So far my work has been confined to the alkali halides, such as sodium chloride NaCl, which are made up of positive and negative ions. In these clusters there are electrostatic attractions and repulsions between the ions together with the strong repulsion that occurs between the electron clouds of the ions when they approach one another. One of my programs, called Cluster, finds the most stable configurations of alkali halide clusters. The program starts with a random arrangement of ions or one that has been input by the user, and then rearranges the ions in space until the energy of the structure reaches a minimum. For any given cluster the program may reach any of several possible minima, depending on the starting arrangement of ions. The one with the smallest (most negative) energy is the stablest.

Another interest is in using the computer to teach chemistry. The second edition of one of my programs, Dynam, (coauthored with Peter Matthews of the University of Plymouth, England) has been published by the Journal of Chemical Education: Software as part of the Advanced Chemistry Collection, 2nd Edition (Special Issue 28), a CD-ROM designed for use by students. Dynam simulates the motions of atoms in the gas, liquid and solid phases. The new version features improved graphics and the ability to create three-dimensional representations of the moving atoms.

The 3rd edition of the Advanced Chemistry Collection published in January 2003 contains another of my programs, Simbo, coauthored with Alexander Lyubartsev of the University of Stockholm and Richard W. York of Wittenberg University. Simbo simulates the exchange of molecules between energy levels to form the Boltzmann distribution.

I am also working on a program called Symmetry, which helps a student identify the symmetry elements and point group of a molecule. This in turn has gotten me interested in VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language) as a means of making three-dimensional representions of molecules. Examples are provided in The Molecular Zoo. VRML representations of alkali halide clusters found by Cluster are presented in The Cluster Zoo.

Click here for the latest version of the program Clicker, which enables the user to import data into an Excel spreadsheet from a scanned chart or graph.

Experience

In addition to teaching at Thiel, I have spent leaves of absences at a number of universities, including (most recently) at the University of Plymouth, England, where I worked on molecular dynamics simulations with Dr. G. Peter Matthews, and the University of Rhode Island, where I worked on molecular clusters with Dr. David Freeman. A number of summers were spent at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, doing thermal ionization mass spectrometry.

Personal Info

My wife Joan and I have a home page where we describe some of our personal interests. For pictures of our trip to China with the Lutheran College China Consortium group in May 2000, click on China 2000.