Dr. Stephen Bergmeier, Professor and Chair of Chemistry & Biochemistry. Photo by Ohio University / Jonathan Adams.
Fall 2017
By Stephen C. Bergmeier
Professor and Chair of Chemistry & Biochemistry Department
Greetings to all of you, our alumni and friends!
This year has seen many advances for our department, setting us on an exciting path for the future.
Planning for construction of a new chemistry building and renovations of the existing Clippinger Laboratories has proceeded at an energetic pace the past year, with ground breaking scheduled for late spring of 2018. The architects, planners, staff and faculty have all been involved in the collaborative discussions to develop an exciting new facility for chemistry. We are excited for the proposed project as it will complement the core strengths of the department and enable us to achieve our full potential for the 21st century.
Architect’s rendering of the new Chemistry Building.
In addition, the department has been working on other initiatives to position ourselves for tomorrow’s students and their future needs. We are developing both graduate and undergraduate online courses. At the graduate level, a fully online non-thesis M.S. degree program is in preparation with an expected launch date of mid-2018. At the undergraduate level, we are in the process of developing online introductory chemistry courses for non-majors. I would encourage you to follow the recently launched department Twitter feed to share the news of our faculty and students as it happens.
Our faculty and students continue to be recognized for their research accomplishments, and you will find them at national meetings such as the American Chemical Society meetings, Gordon Research Conferences and many others. Department faculty also hosted a regional conference on campus with several more in the planning for the coming years. Look for us when you attend a meeting, we would greatly enjoy the opportunity to catch up on news with you.
This year has also been a time for celebrations. Two of our colleagues were recently promoted based on their excellent achievements. Hao Chen was promoted to Full Professor and Michael Held was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure. In addition, the department launched its double master’s program with the University of Leipzig, Germany and celebrated the 15th anniversary of the graduate research collaborations with our Leipzig colleagues.
Finally, we greatly enjoy hearing from you, our alumni, and having the opportunity to meet you when you visit campus. We hope that you will share your recent news and visit us during the next year at events like the College of Arts & Sciences Career and Networking Week, the Brewing Science Short Course during Brew Week, homecoming or one of the other signature events in Athens.
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