HM Achieve for Organic Chemistry (1-Term Online; Multi-Course) CHEM 2231/2233 Lecture and Lab

Neil E. Schore was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1948 and educated in public schools in the Bronx, New York, and Ridgefield, New Jersey. He completed a B.A. with honors in chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania in 1969. Moving back to New York, he worked with the late Professor Nicholas J. Turro at Columbia University, studying photochemical and photophysical processes of organic compounds for his Ph.D. thesis. He first met co-author Peter Vollhardt in the 1970s when they both were doing postdoctoral work in Professor Robert Bergmans laboratory at Cal Tech. Since joining the UC-Davis faculty in 1976, Schore has taught organic chemistry to more than 15,000 nonchemistry majors, winning seven teaching awards, publishing over 100 papers in various areas related to organic chemistry, and refereeing several hundred local youth soccer games.  Neil is married to Carrie Erickson, a microbiologist at the UC-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. They have two children, Michael (b. 1981) and Stefanie (b. 1983), both of whom carried out experiments for the new Seventh Edition of Organic Chemistry.

Jerry Mohrig spent his entire professional career as a college teacher. He retired in 2003 from Carleton College as Stark Professor in the Natural Sciences and Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus. Actively involved in science education reform for many years, Jerry was a founding member of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) and of Project Kaleidoscope. From 1997 until 2000 he was Chair of the ACS Committee on Professional Training. During his career Jerry collaborated on chemical research with over 150 undergraduates and published many articles on the stereochemistry of organic addition-elimination and proton-transfer reactions. His first textbook for the organic chemistry laboratory was published in 1968 and over the years he developed several new experiments for the organic lab. His major recent interest is bringing more effective student learning to the organic chemistry lab through the use of guided-inquiry projects and experiments. Jerry has been honored with the CUR Fellow Award, the Briscoe Lectureship at Indiana University, the James Flack Norris Award of the ACS, and the Catalyst Award of the Chemical Manufacturers Association for excellence in the teaching of chemistry.

Gretchen Hofmeister earned her Ph.D. in synthetic chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1990, after receiving a B.A. in chemistry from Carleton College. She was an NIH Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Professor Richard R. Schrock at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before becoming a member of the faculty at Gustavus Adolphus College, earning tenure in 2002. That same year, she moved to Carleton College, where she is now Professor of Chemistry. Professor Hofmeister has taught courses that cover the spectrum from organic to organometallic to inorganic chemistry. Her primary love is teaching organic chemistry, where she emphasizes reactivity and understanding reaction mechanisms. She has designed laboratory experiments at the intermediate and advanced levels that provide students with research-like experiences and expose them to sophisticated and modern synthetic techniques. Her research is focused on developing and understanding catalytic processes in order to improve the selectivity and efficiency of chemical transformations and reduce the adverse impacts of chemistry on the environment. After a sabbatical year (2008/2009) doing research in the laboratories of Karl Anker Jørgensen at Aarhus University in Denmark, she has shifted her focus to catalysts that are composed entirely of organic compounds. Professor Hofmeister has also twice served on the Organic Exams Committee of the American Chemical Society to develop the national standardized exam in organic chemistry.