Distinguished Chemist John C. Kotz will be the
featured speaker at UNC Asheville's 10th annual S. Dexter Squibb
Lecture Series October 22-23. Kotz is a State University of New York
Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus at the SUNY College at
Oneonta and the author of numerous general chemistry books. His two
talks are free and open to the public.
Kotz will examine "Chemical Education in a Global Environment" at
7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 22, in UNC Asheville's Rhoades-Robinson Hall
room 125. In his talk, Kotz will discuss the annual Chemistry
Olympiad, which brings together high school students and their
mentors from 68 different countries. Kotz will describe the promise
and problems of using U.S. textbooks in other parts of the world,
talk about the experience of teaching abroad, and give a mentor's
view of the Olympiad.
Kotz will lecture on "Past, Present and Future of Chemistry
Textbooks" at 4:35 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 23, in UNC Asheville's Karpen
Hall room 038. This talk will address students' pervasive negative
attitudes toward textbooks. Kotz will also touch on the possibility
that the current model of textbook production, pricing and
distribution may be broken.
Kotz is best known as the lead author of two introductory general
chemistry books, "Chemistry and Chemical Reactivity" and "The
Chemical World." Most recently Kotz has served as a mentor for the
U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad Team. He has been a Fulbright
Fellow and is a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. He has won both the SUNY Chancellor's Award
for Excellence in Teaching and the SUNY Award for Research in
Scholarship. He also received a National Catalyst Award in Chemical
Education from the Chemical Manufacturers Association.
The S. Dexter Squibb Endowed Distinguished Lectureship brings
well-known scientists to the UNC Asheville campus to give lectures
and to meet with University students and faculty, as well as high
school science students and administrators. The lecture series
honors S. Dexter Squibb, former UNC Asheville Chemistry Department
chair. Squibb joined the faculty in 1964 and was instrumental in
developing UNC Asheville's Chemistry Department into a certified
four-year program.
For more information, call UNC Asheville's Chemistry Department at
828/251-6443 or email
bhenders@unca.edu.
