Leonard Vuocolo

Associate Teaching Professor, Chemistry

Education

2000     Ph.D. in Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University

Projects

Areas of Specialty

Effective Use of Technology/Software at the introductory level; contextual approaches to general chemistry; implementation of green chemistry and bioinorganic chemistry in the undergraduate curriculum; interdisciplinary experiments between chemistry and engineering; interdisciplinary courses between chemistry and non-science and non-engineering programs, peer learning techniques, advising effective recitation instruction, academic and career advising.

Educational Interests

My lecture courses focus on a “concepts first, numbers next” approach to learning. I integrate activities and software that encourage students to apply concepts to new and/or practical situations and to derive new concepts from those they currently know. In the Professional Communication Skills (PCSC) course, students learn about faculty research in the department and communicating professionally both on their own and from their peers, enforcing the notion of learning information through communicating/teaching it in various formats. Further implementation of peer learning techniques will be in the Introduction to Experimental Chemistry course where some parts of experiments will involve small groups deriving procedures to reach a goal and class pooling of data for interpretation of results. In the safety seminar students not only learn about current waste procedures and safe laboratory practices, but they also get to inspect a laboratory on campus and report whether these practices are currently enforced. The Junior and Senior seminar enforce the literature experiences from PCSC and the safety training from the sophomore seminar through providing feedback on seniors’ research or literature presentations.

Appointments

Years	Position
2009–present	Assistant Teaching Professor of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University
2005–2009	Special Lecturer in Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University
2000–2005	Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Allegheny College

Awards and Distinctions

Years	Award
October 2007 and 2009	Co-recipient of the Carnegie Mellon Panhellenic Role Model Award.
June 1999	Co-recipient of the 1999 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award (In recognition of contributions made to the development of Professor Terrence Collins’ “TAML™ Catalytic Oxidant Activators: General Activation of Hydrogen Peroxide for Green Oxidation Technologies”)
April 1999	Carnegie Mellon University Graduate Student Teaching Award
April 1998	Mellon College of Science Graduate Student Teaching Award
April 1995	Department of Chemistry Graduate Student Teaching Award

Teaching Interests

Course number	Course title
09-101	Introduction to Experimental Chemistry
09-103	Atoms, Molecules and Chemical Change
09-106	Modern Chemistry II
09-105	Introduction to Modern Chemistry I
09-204	Professional Communication Skills in Chemistry (formerly Issues in Chemistry)
09-202	Undergraduate Seminar II: Safety and Environmental Issues for Chemists
09-302	Undergraduate Seminar IV
09-402	Undergraduate Seminar VI
09-445	Undergraduate Research