This workshop encoils inorganic faculty, postdocs, and graduate students into the supportive community of scholars known as IONiC (Interactive Online Network of Inorganic Chemistry). Inorganic chemistry is one of the broadest fields in chemistry, covering the entire Periodic Table of the Elements, yet faculty members tend to be narrowly trained in a single subdiscipline. Stepping into the inorganic classroom, where knowledge of all of the subdisciplines is expected, can be daunting. Collaboration with colleagues from different inorganic subfields is an obvious solution to this problem, but geographical and professional isolation, especially at small institutions, inhibits such collaborations. This workshop provides an opportunity to network and collaborate with other inorganic chemists and to deepen knowledge in the subfield of bioinorganic chemistry in order to introduce students to advances in and applications of coordination chemistry to biologically important problems.

 

The IONiC community supports faculty interaction through its web home, VIPEr (Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource,www.ionicviper.org). Participants in this workshop will learn about the resources on VIPEr and become active VIPEr contributors. The workshop theme, bioinorganic chemistry, will add a "back to grad school" feel to the workshop, with participants immersing themselves in cutting edge chemistry, learning from leading researchers in the field, and creating new learning opportunities for their students. The research experts for this workshop will be Tom O'Halloran and Tom Meade from the host institution, Janet Morrow from SUNY Buffalo and Anne Jones from Arizona State.

 

Participants will work collaboratively to develop new teaching materials that provide modern, biologically relevant examples to teach coordination chemistry concepts.Before the workshop, there will be a short pre-workshop web conference that introduces participants to one another and to the web-based collaboration tools that IONiC uses. Participants and workshop leaders will discuss what resources the participants will want to bring to the workshop.

 

Our NSF grant paid for lodging and several meals and all workshop expenses.  Attendees must provide their own transportation to Northwestern University but are encouraged to seek university funding from their faculty development programs at their home institutions.   Application was through the cCWCS site.