My passion is teaching. I am one of the richest people on the planet in that I get paid for doing something I thoroughly enjoy.

In all of my classes, I expect my students to work hard and to strive for excellence.

Accomplishments are not measured in how many details are memorized or in how many processes are mastered. What is important is that a true, quality understanding is achieved, such that the student both sees the world with different eyes and can deal with the challenges in her future.

To improve my ability to communicate an understanding of chemistry, I have spent the previous nine summers teaching general chemistry at the University of Virginia.

A memorable piece of student feedback: "I took the chemistry test. I didn't know the answers to all of the questions, but what I did not know I could figure out. I made a perfect 800."

In addition to teaching general, analytical, and instrumental chemistry and to working both on and off campus with students on research projects, I offer a popular course in creative and critical problem solving. The students greatly improve their abilities to think and to solve problems. A memorable piece of student feedback came from a student after a summer: "After I was working on my job for two weeks everyone was calling me MacGyver because I was so good at problem solving."

I have been an American Chemical Society tour speaker, evidently one of a half dozen in the state of Virginia and at last check the only one in the state from a liberal arts college. The topic, "Creative Problem Solving in Research"

It is very important to me that my students like me, but what is most important is that, 10 years into their futures, they are grateful for what they have learned.