Marcy Hamby Towns | |
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Alma mater | Purdue University Linfield University |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | Purdue University Ball State University |
Marcy Hamby Towns is an American chemist who is Professor of Chemistry Education at Purdue University. Her research considers the development of innovative ways to teach undergraduate chemistry. She was awarded the IUPAC Distinguished Women in Chemistry Award in 2021.
Towns is the daughter of a chemist. [1] She was an undergraduate student at Linfield University [2] [3] and moved to Purdue University for graduate studies. [2] After completing college, she started teaching chemistry at Valley Catholic School, [4] where she became interested in chemistry education.
Towns joined the chemistry department at Ball State University in 1995.[ citation needed ] She taught chemistry in Indiana for twelve years, after which she returned to the faculty at Purdue University and developed a research program in chemistry education and evidence-based learning. [5] She is particularly interested in undergraduate chemistry teaching and laboratory assessment. [6]
In chemistry, an enantiomer – also called optical isomer, antipode, or optical antipode – is one of two stereoisomers that are non-superposable onto their own mirror image. Enantiomers are much like one's right and left hands, when looking at the same face, they cannot be superposed onto each other. No amount of reorientation in three spatial dimensions will allow the four unique groups on the chiral carbon to line up exactly. The number of stereoisomers a molecule has can be determined by the number of chiral carbons it has. Stereoisomers include both enantiomers and diastereomers.
Chemistry education is the study of teaching and learning chemistry. It is one subset of STEM education or discipline-based education research (DBER). Topics in chemistry education include understanding how students learn chemistry and determining the most efficient methods to teach chemistry. There is a constant need to improve chemistry curricula and learning outcomes based on findings of chemistry education research (CER). Chemistry education can be improved by changing teaching methods and providing appropriate training to chemistry instructors, within many modes, including classroom lectures, demonstrations, and laboratory activities.
Sir Ronald Sydney Nyholm was an Australian chemist who was a leading figure in inorganic chemistry in the 1950s and 1960s.
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The Nyholm Prize for Education commemorates the life and work of Australian-born chemist Sir Ronald Nyholm, who – alongside his research in coordination chemistry – passionately campaigned for the improvement of science education. He acted as president of the Royal Society of Chemistry from 1968 to 1970.
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Christine Luscombe is a Japanese-British chemist who is a professor at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. Her research investigates polymer chemistry, organic electronics, organic photovoltaics and the synthesis of novel materials for processable electronics. She serves on the editorial boards of Macromolecules, Advanced Functional Materials, the Annual Review of Materials Research and ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
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