Following an undergraduate training at Queensland University, a PhD in inorganic chemistry from Otago University, and post-doc appointments at the Universities of Tasmania and Adelaide, Roy Tasker has been teaching first-year university students at the University of Western Sydney (UWS) since 1985. In the 1990s his research interest was in developing students? mental models of the molecular world for a deeper understanding of chemistry concepts. The result was an integrated suite of molecular-level animations in the VisChem project. Then, on a three-year secondment with CADRE design (a multimedia production company) he gained experience in nine interactive multimedia projects to complement and supplement textbooks in chemistry and biochemistry. Since 2000 his research group has developed and evaluated multimedia learning designs and the results have been applied in this textbook project. In 1999 he was awarded the inaugural UWS Award for Teaching Excellence, and in 2002 the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Chemical Education Division Medal. Most recently, Roy was recognized with the prestigious 2011 Prime Minister's University Teacher of the Year award. Bob Bucat is an Associate Professor in the Discipline of Chemistry, School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences at the University of Western Australia. After attaining a PhD in physical chemistry, he developed a passionate interest in the challenges of education in chemistry, and for some time his research interests have been in that field. Bob has been a titular member of the Committee on Teaching of Chemistry of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and a member of the National Committee for Chemistry of the Australian Academy of Science. He was a winner in 1988 of the UWA 75th Anniversary Distinguished Teacher Award, and was the fifth recipient of the Medal of the Chemical Education Division of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute for contributions to education in chemistry. John C. Kotz is an emeritus State University of New York Distinguished Teaching Professor at the College at Oneonta. Educated at Washington and Lee University, as well as Cornell University, he held National Institutes of Health postdoctoral appointments at the University of Manchester Institute for Science and Technology in England and at Indiana University. Professor Kotz has co-authored three textbooks in several editions - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY, CHEMISTRY & CHEMICAL REACTIVITY, and THE CHEMICAL WORLD - along with the INTERACTIVE GENERAL CHEMISTRY CD-ROM. He also has published research on inorganic chemistry and electrochemistry. He was a Fulbright Lecturer and Research Scholar in Portugal in 1979 and a visiting professor there in 1992, as well as a visiting professor at the Institute for Chemical Education (University of Wisconsin, 1991-1992) and at Auckland University in New Zealand (1999). He also was an invited speaker at a meeting of the South African Chemical Society and at the biennial conference for secondary school chemistry teachers in New Zealand. In addition, a recent tenure as a mentor of the U.S. Chemistry Olympiad Team, Professor Kotz has received numerous honors, including a State University of New York Chancellor's Award (1979), a National Catalyst Award for Excellence in Teaching (1992), the Estee Lectureship in Chemical Education at the University of South Dakota (1998), the Visiting Scientist Award from the Western Connecticut Section of the American Chemical Society (1999), and the first annual Distinguished Education Award from the Binghamton (New York) Section of the American Chemical Society (2001). Gabriela C. Weaver received her B.S. in 1989 from the California Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. in 1994 from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She served as Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado at Denver from 1994 to 2001 and as Associate Professor at Purdue University since 2001. She has been an invited speaker at over 35 national and international meetings, including the 2001 Gordon Conference on Chemical Education Research and the DVD Summit in Dublin, Ireland. She is currently Director of the Center for Authentic Science Practice in Education at Purdue University. Her work in instructional technology development and on active learning has led to numerous publications in addition to her publications on surface physical chemistry. Paul M. Treichel, received his B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1958 and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1962. After a year of postdoctoral study in London, he assumed a faculty position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He served as department chair from 1986 through 1995 and was awarded a Helfaer Professorship in 1996. He has held visiting faculty positions in South Africa (1975) and in Japan (1995). Retiring after 44 years as a faculty member in 2007, he is currently Emeritus Professor of Chemistry. During his faculty career he taught courses in general chemistry, inorganic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, and scientific ethics. Professor Treichel's research in organometallic and metal cluster chemistry and in mass spectrometry, aided by 75 graduate and undergraduate students, has led to more than 170 papers in scientific journals. He may be contacted by email at
[email protected]. John E. McMurry received his B.A. from Harvard University and his Ph.D. at Columbia University. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Foundation Fellow. He has received several awards, which include the National Institutes of Health Career Development Award, the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award, and the Max Planck Research Award. In addition to ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, he is also the author or coauthor of ORGANIC CHEMISTRY: A BIOLOGICAL APPROACH, FUNDAMENTALS OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, THE ORGANIC CHEMISTRY OF BIOLOGICAL PATHWAYS. With Peter Mahaffy's passion for helping undergraduate students and others see the intricate web that connects chemistry with so many other aspects of life, he has made innovative contributions to science education both in Canada and internationally. After receiving his Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry from Indiana University, Mahaffy moved to Canada where he is now Professor of Chemistry at the King's University College in Edmonton, Alberta. Mahaffy collaborates regularly on research with undergraduate students, in the areas of chemistry education, visualization in science, organic chemistry, and environmental chemistry. In addition, he gives numerous chemistry presentations to students and teachers at all levels, and to the general public. He chairs IUPAC's Committee on Chemistry Education (CCE) and serves on international chemistry education advisory and editorial boards. Elected a fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) in 1999, Mahaffy also received the CIC National Award for Chemistry Education in 2003, given as a mark of recognition for an outstanding contribution in Canada to education at the post-secondary level in the field of chemistry or chemical engineering.
