More detailed biography (Wikipedia version)

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I grew up in Lincoln, NE, with two science teacher parents.  My mom taught elementary science for 40+ years and my dad was a college biology professor.  My mom raised me and nurtured my love of science with such activities as fossil hunting and looking at pond water under the microscope.

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I graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, in 1992 with a double-major in physics and philosophy. I took two gap years (we didn’t call them that back then) before starting graduate school.  I worked for one year in the department of plant pathology at the University of Nebraska.  I moved with my then-fiancée-now-wife to complete her M.S. program in Madison, WI, where to my delight I discovered The Onion. 

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I worked for a year (nine months really) in a biochemistry lab on campus.  My supervisor, Dr. Paul Ludden, had a profound impact on my career.  Even though I was a physics major and he a biochemist, he hired me to work in his lab.  Toward the end of my time there, he asked what I wanted to study and do for a career.   I told him “biophysics” even though I didn’t really know what that meant at the time.  I told him I loved quantum mechanics, but also retained an interest in biology.  He intervened personally to advocate for my admission to the University of Washington, which was my number one choice.  This exemplifies the power of hard work and a good reference. 

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In the meantime I got married and moved to the Pacific Northwest.

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I started graduate school at UW in 1994 in the Department of Chemistry.  I fused my ongoing interest in biological systems with my interest in fundamental physics by finding an advisor, Professor Gary Drobny, who did work in biophysical chemistry.  My graduate research was primarily using solid-state deuterium NMR to study local dynamics of DNA, publishing some good work in JACS and Biochemistry.  I learned some structural techniques as well (dipolar coupling analysis of biomolecular structure).  I graduated in 2000, and stayed an extra year as a post-doc to work on getting some papers submitted.  More importantly, I had my first full teaching experience during this "extra" year.  I had been a TA previously, but this was my first opportunity to run an entire class on my own.  The class was CHM355 Physical Chemistry for Biologists, and had 189 students.  It was … challenging… but that is a story for another day.  It reinforced my interest in undergraduate education, and finding a position at a PUI.    

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I semi-changed directions for my post doc.  I was fortunate enough to receive a prestigious NIH post-doctoral Fellowship working for Professor Eric Oldfield in the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Department of Chemistry.  The position was nominally to do solid-state NMR, but ended up being a lot of medicinal chemistry and group leadership. 

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I started my position of Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Missouri State University in 2004, and achieved tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2010, and promotion to Full Professor in 2023. 

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My professional interests are many and varied, and run the gamut of activities.  I love to teach, especially physical chemistry, and am always looking for ways to improve.  I use humor as a major part of my teaching style, drawing inspiration from the absurdism inherent in my comedy idols Monty Python and Steve Martin, among others.  My research interests are closely related to my graduate work, in the use of NMR to investigate fundamental properties of DNA.  More specifically, we study the structure, dynamics and thermodynamics of damaged DNA to examine the role in binding by repair proteins. 

 

I love community outreach; in particular science demonstrations for public school students.  I am the academic advisor for Missouri State Honors College chemistry majors and the second proactive advisor in our department. 

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In 2015 (spring break!) I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.  We tried every available pharmaceutical intervention but never reached remission.  In 2016 (spring break!) I had my colon removed, followed six weeks later by J-pouch surgery.  Life has been an adjustment since then.  I have had to come to terms that life will never be what it was before my illness, but is so much better than it was during my illness. 

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My personal interests are many and varied as well.  I love to garden, especially with native species for wildlife.  I am a Halloween and horror movie enthusiast.  When we moved to Springfield, MO, and into a house of our own, I was finally able to create a Halloween Wonderland of my own.  I have been a comic collector and am a huge fan of the National Park system.  I have been an avid TTRPG player since the awkward tween years before it was cool, and continue to play as I can.  I have dabbled in genealogy.

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For the past 16+ years, by primary hobby has been my son.  My wife and I try to be active, involved parents without being helicopter-y.  We have been head and assistant coaches for his baseball teams and I helped coach his math team for three years.  He loves distance running, archery and Science Olympiad.  He attends the Scholars Program at Central High School (Go Bulldogs!) and we are supremely grateful to have world-class gifted education in Springfield, MO.  He will be a member of the inaugural class of FLYSPS.  My better half is a social worker for VA, working with homeless Veterans. 

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Please feel free to contact me, or take a look around the website.

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