Background:

• Visiting Assistant Professor, Michigan Technological University, 2000-2001
• Postdoctoral Research Assoc., The University of Iowa,1998-1999
• Postdoctoral Research Assoc., The University of Chicago,1999-2000
• Board of Trustees Teaching Award, Indiana University, 2002
• Southern Indiana Section of the American Chemical Society, Chair, 2004, 2006
• Faculty Advisor to the Student Affiliates Chapter of the American Chemical Society (SAACS)
• Faculty Advisor to the Timmy Foundation, since 2003
• Student Choice Teaching Award, 2004
• Institute for Manufacturing Research Fellowship, 1996-1998

In addition to teaching courses, my main focus since coming to IU has been to find ways in which we can teach our chemistry classes to better meet the needs of all our science undergraduates. I have been involved with the curricular changes in the general chemistry program, and after three years of work we instituted our new 1:2:1 curriculum in fall 2005. This new 1:2:1 curriculum includes students taking:

o C117: Principles of Chemistry and Biochemistry (5 cr.)

o C341: Organic Chemistry I (3 cr.)

o C342: Organic Chemistry II (3 cr.)

o N330: Intermediate Inorganic Chemistry (5 cr.)

This new N330: Intermediate Inorganic Chemistry course will be offered in spring 2007 for the first time. This class will include many topics that students would normally have learned in the second semester general chemistry (i.e. C106/C118) and learn them at a higher level incorporating organic. In order for students to fully appreciate the roles of metals and all their applications, one must first learn the chemistry of metals: their reactions and reactivity and interactions with organic compounds. I hope to build your appreciation for the periodic table beyond H, C, O, N and the halogens. Among other things, this course will introduce you to a survey of the metals of the periodic table, inorganic solids, transition metal coordination chemistry, bioinorganic chemistry, organometallics and catalysis.

Since fall 2003, we reinstated our Student Affiliates Chapter of the American Chemical Society (SAACS), for which I am the Faculty Advisor. We hope that by having this professional organization on campus, we can help our majors and others interested in the sciences become more prepared for the careers, graduate school and beyond. Furthermore, I am hoping that the SAACS chapter will develop more camaraderie among our majors and to allow them to seek professional advice within their chosen fields.

Selected Publications:

"Newton's Dark Secrets" NOVA documentary aired November 15, 2005, shot on location at Indiana University in the Reck lab. It presented several results and re-enactments of Newton's alchemical experiments, conducted or devised by William R. Newman and Cathrine E. Reck. The BBC version of the documentary aired in May, 2004 in Britain.

"Tantalum-Mediated Coupling of C₂B₉H₁₀^2-. ΜSynthesis and Characterization of [(-H)(C₂B₉H₁₀)₂TaCl₂]," C.E. Reck; Y-X., Su; I.A. Guzei; R.F. Jordan Organometallics, 2000, 19, 4858.

"Synthesis, Structure and Reactivity of a 2,3-Dialuminated Indole Derivative," C.E. Reck; A. Bretschneider-Hurley; M.J. Heeg; C.H. Winter Organometallics, 1998, 17, 2906.

"Synthesis and Characterization of a Dimagnesiated Aromatic Compound: Oligomeric Derivatives from 1,4-Bis(chloromagnesio)-2,5-di-tert-butylbenzene," C.E. Reck; C.H. Winter, Organometallics, 1997, 16, 4493.