Alecia M. Eppley
M.S., Adjunct Professor
Organic Chemistry
2009 to present

I have a broad background in chemistry having worked as a medicinal chemist for SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals (now Glaxo SmithKline), a test editor for the chemistry section of the Science Reasoning test on the ACT, and as an adjunct professor at two colleges in Abilene, Texas where I taught a chemistry course designed for nursing majors and a science course for education majors.  Our move to Greenville came when my husband accepted a position as an Associate Professor of Religion at Thiel.  As a native Minnesotan , I was happy to leave the heat and dry climate of West Texas behind and move to Western Pennsylvania.  I have also been very happy to resume teaching in the chemistry department at Thiel.  One of my goals is to help students see chemistry in their daily lives and learn to appreciate and understand it.  This understanding helps us with so many issues that we face on a daily basis.  I want my students to be able to think critically and make well-informed decisions when they face these issues.   When I am not teaching, I enjoy spending time with my husband and three kids.

Kathryn K. Frantz
Ph.D., Professor
Organic Chemistry
Biochemistry
1998 to present

As an educator, my main goal is for all of my students to succeed, not only at Thiel, but in their future careers. I enjoy helping students enrich their learning about chemistry, themselves, and their community through tutoring, mentoring, and participation in outreach programs such as “Kids & Chemistry.” My interactions with my students and colleagues enhance my growth as a teacher as I strive to make a challenging subject interesting and enjoyable for my students. Some of my most treasured moments as a professor have been when my students are honored for their achievements; accepted into desired research, professional, and graduate programs; hired for new positions; or when they simply phone, text or email to inform me of their continuing successes.

My areas of expertise are organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and biochemistry. My research interests include the extraction, isolation, and characterization of medicinal compounds from natural materials, and the synthesis of biodiesel fuels.

G. Rattan K. Khalsa
Ph.D., Professor
Inorganic Chemistry
Bioinorganic Chemistry
1980 to present

My research focuses on discovering combinations of metal oxides for harvesting sunlight to split water thereby generating hydrogen gas a green fuel which does not contribute to global warming. Students in my lab utilize a green laser to examine the ability of metal oxides to absorb visible light to serve as possible semiconductors for producing hydrogen. Other areas of my research include investigating small molecule interactions with transition metal complexes.

In my chemistry classes such as General Chemistry, I interweave applications to engineering, medicine, biology, and everyday life. Hands-on activities and demonstrations of chemical concepts heighten the interest of students. In my chemistry course for nonmajors, students have enjoyed working in pairs presenting chemical demonstrations to one another and explaining the concepts involved. In my Biological Inorganic Chemistry class, students enhance their learning about the active sites of enzymes and medical applications of drugs through their own presentations and the incorporation of interactive molecular models. It is a pleasure to interact with students in discussions about college courses and activities, careers and job opportunities. I enjoy inviting Thiel alumni to give talks to current students sharing their successes as well as challenges in careers in education, chemical industry, and the health-related professions. In these presentations, alumni also relate their experiences in graduate and professional schools. These interactions assist students in obtaining internships, work opportunities, and ideas for future employment and post-graduate education.

Anna M. Reinsel

Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Analytical Chemistry

Coordinator of Environmental Science Program

2011 to present

Scientific knowledge is one of the keys to achieving a sustainable future.  Environmental science is an interdisciplinary field that provides a big-picture understanding of the world and our influences on it while chemistry provides a way to analyze the composition of our Earth’s materials.  My analytical chemistry classes focus on learning the techniques and instrumentation used to collect, interpret and report data.  My goal for students is to be able to take the concepts and strategies gained from my classes and apply them to other classes, both science and non-science, and to all aspects of their lives.

My research plan is to study the use of nano-scale materials for environmental applications including the detection, control and remediation of environmental pollutants.  I am interested in investigating environmental issues on campus and in our community and relating those to issues on a global scale.

Christopher M. Stanisky
Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Physical Chemistry
2010 to present

I like to tell stories ... stories of how we have come to conceive of this peculiar language we call chemistry. To the casual observer, chemists use obscure rules and notations to describe the things we cannot see. The language we speak was encoded by the incredible teamwork performed by scientists around the world to explain observations made in a variety of experiments. These are the stories I like to tell: The puzzles solved by the brilliant men and women who have gone before. It humbles me to think of how creative they were to conceive of and then build their own instrumentation to make fundamental measurements on the microscopic world around us. For 50 years, we watched television on cathode ray tubes, but these were originally designed almost a century earlier by the discoverers of electrons. How talented these scientists were! Our ability not only to understand but also to manipulate electrons has spawned the fast-paced growth of consumer electronics, producing increasingly quicker computers that we can now hold in the palms of ours hands. These wonders are often taken for granted by so many of us. I try to instill a sense of scientific intuition that allows students to appreciate what we have accomplished in this world, and, of course, what nature has accomplished. I hope furthermore that this inspires students to recognize how incredibly precious this gift is that we have been given -- i.e. our existence and this amazing planet we are so blessed to inhabit. This is a story everyone should know and appreciate.

In my research, I plan to study the chemistry induced by low energy electron beams in thin films of cold ice mixtures. The electron beams ionize molecules in the target and initiate chemical reactions. Since this work is performed in a vacuum chamber, and the ice mixtures are cooled to low temperatures, these experiments simulate reactions that occur as a result of cosmic ray bombardment of the icy surfaces of comets, meteors, and dust particles in the interstellar medium, as well as moons of large planets or even planets themselves.

Doris Zimmerman
Ph.D., Professor
Analytical Chemistry
Physical Chemistry
2006 to present

The goal of my teaching is that the student learn and appreciate the discipline whether the subject matter is elementary mathematics or advanced physical chemistry.  In this process of learning, hopefully individualized study habits can be introduced or enhanced.  I have found that if learning involves the entire group; it is usually more enjoyable for all, both student and teacher.  The group involvement can be question/answer interactions, demonstrations, data collection in experiments, and/or calculations both manual and by calculator.

I also attend more than ten professional local/national meetings per year and take students as appropriate, even to all-day workshops.  I attend the two National American Chemical Society meetings each year as the local section Councilor.  I coordinate the ticket distribution for the Faraday Lecture held in Pittsburgh in the Fall, and I present teacher/student workshops at PittCon on “The Scientific Method and Observations”.  I have also been involved with the Celebration of Mole Day and National Chemistry Week in the Department.

One of my research interests is in the field of chromatography, the separation of a mixture based on the substance affinities.  I am interested in the column packings, specifically carbonaceous materials coated with silica.  The surface is characterized by thermogravimetric and chromatographic analysis.  Energies of adsorption can also be calculated.  Additionally, I would be interested in expanding the field of chromatography for identification of samples by GC-MS (gas chromatography – mass spectrometry).  Another research interest is fracture analysis of polymers.

A further research interest is in the field of science and mathematics education.  I believe that a placement exam for chemistry can be of benefit to the beginning college student.  This exam would cover chemical principles that should be mastered at the high school level as well as the necessary algebraic skills needed in the study of chemistry.  Another development in the field of education would be interactive classroom sheets to enhance learning of scientific or mathematical concepts.