S. Dexter Squibb Distinguished Lecture Series in Chemistry: Dr. Benny Chan

UNC Asheville’s Chemistry department proudly presents an evening with the 23rd S. Dexter Squibb Distinguished Lecturer, America Chemical Society fellow Dr. Benny Chan of the College of New Jersey.

Intersectionality And Other Queer Superpowers To Create Inclusive Excellence In Chemistry
Sept. 13 • 7:45 p.m.–8:45 p.m. •  Highsmith Student Union Alumni Hall

An abstract of this evening’s lecture explained by Chan: “My multiple social identities have created a unique positionality that has driven the diversity, equity, and inclusion work in the School of Science at The College of New Jersey. Pop culture references will be used to describe the different queer superpowers I have developed to navigate societal norms during my academic training and early part of my career. These intersecting identities allowed me to develop a strong passion for equity and inclusion for students from all backgrounds. These superpowers in action will be demonstrated by our social science-based model to shift teaching culture towards an Experimentalist Teaching and how the model was applied and assessed during General Chemistry curricular transformations.” In addition to his research in synthesis and characterization of inorganic materials, Dr. Chan works with an interdisciplinary team of colleagues to conduct research on cultural competency, diversity, equity, and inclusion in education. The topic of this fall’s lecture series will be diversity and inclusion in chemistry and the intersection of the natural and social sciences.

I’m not that innocent: CUREs that led to novel aminoquinoline sulfonamide coordination compounds with interesting redox properties
Sept. 14 • noon–1 p.m. • Highsmith Student Union Alumni Hall

An abstract of this afternoon’s lecture explained by Chan: “The inorganic chemistry laboratory curriculum was transformed to include a CURE (course-based undergraduate research experience) to create equity in research experiences at The College of New Jersey. Through a discovery-based strategy, students were able to find new avenues of study which led to new directions in the research group. Through hypothesis driven experiments, students proposed an aminoquinoline sulfonamide chelating system from the literature. Based on the literature, they proposed and synthesized a p-nitrobenzene ligand analog to synthesize unreported coordination complexes. The work led to an extensive project studying the first row transition metal and rare earth chelation of these ligand systems. The talk will discuss the findings of the first row transition metal complexes including structural changes through the series and the interesting redox properties that have not been reported before.”

The Squibb Lecture Series

The S. Dexter Squibb Lecture Series was created to honor the retired UNC Asheville Chemistry Department Chair, whose 30 years of dedicated service positioned UNC Asheville as a leader in chemistry education in the southeastern United States. The Series is an annual event, which features nationally recognized chemistry educators whose goals reflect the spirit of Dexter’s accomplishments.

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