Dear friends of VIPEr,

On September 28, 2005, the following email was sent to seven inorganic chemists at seven schools that were part of an Andrew W. Mellon Faculty Career Enhancement Initiative. The original group, the Inorganic Chemistry Curricular Initiative, consisted of five inorganic chemists (including three current members of the Leadership Council) from the cluster, and one “external” member who brought much-needed expertise in the realm of solid state chemistry.

If you have looked over the program for the spring meeting in San Diego, you may have noticed that once again we will be hosting the Undergraduate Research at the Frontiers of Inorganic Chemistry symposium. This will mark the 9th consecutive year of this symposium and we are looking forward to another great series of talks. There is one minor difference this year (or at least the members of the LC think it is different)--the oral sessions are listed as by invitation only.

While I realize that the last person you want to hear from at this crazy-busy time of year is someone on sabbatical, I’m hoping that I can channel some Zen-like calm your way. This is the first sabbatical leave that I’ve taken that hasn’t involved moving my entire family across long distances.

If you are an avid reader of BITeS you read the posts by Shirley Lin and Kari Young earlier this summer. If you haven’t, I encourage you to do so. Those posts are about members of the VIPEr community spreading the message of VIPEr. Community is going to be a very important theme in the BITeS posts this fall.

Welcome to another semester, and another

For the first time in quite a few years I will be teaching general chemistry in two 75 minute meetings (Tuesday and Thursday) as opposed to the 'normal' three 50 minute meetings (Monday, Wednesday and Friday). From what I remember, I don’t like the Tuesday-Thursday classes. They are long and it is difficult to keep my attention that long let alone the students. Another negative is that it also means that I have to switch from my normal 4 exams + a final to 3 exams + a final. Wait a second, that means less grading for me…perhaps that is a positive and not a negative.

With a mix of emotions, 21 participants, 7 leaders, and one indispensable snack fairy parted ways on Friday at the conclusion of VIPEr’s “Hetero-genius Catalysis at the Frontiers of Inorganic Chemistry” workshop at the University of Washington in Seattle.

We are in the midst of our 3rd NSF sponsored workshop on teaching inorganic chemistry, using the ionicviper website, and developing community. Seven members of the leadership council (Anne Bentley, Adam Johnson, Chip Nataro, Jeff Raker, Joanne Stewart, Lori Watson, and Nancy Williams) have been working hard for 8-9 months to put the workshop together. Yesterday we were joined by 22 participants from 3 of the 4 US time zones for a wonderful buffet dinner at Ivar's Salmon house and an introduction to "Understanding by Design" by Joanne Stewart.