Christopher J. Fenk

Dr. Fenk is full Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Kent State University. He has authored numerous scientific articles and presented at regional and national meetings of the American Chemical Society, the National Science Teachers Association and the Science Education Council of Ohio. He is the Co-Principle investigator of the Improving Teacher Quality Program grants titled “Conceptual Chemistry for Teachers of Grades 4-9”. These grants were awarded to Kent State University by the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) for most of the past decade. Funding for this program was made available through the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. This program provided more than $1.5 million in tuition, materials, and supplies to area middle school teachers for professional development activities. In addition, this grant program provided more than a dozen Super Science Saturday events for local middle school children. Through the Super Science Saturday program over 1,000 local middle school children had the opportunity to conduct guided scientific inquiries in a fun and safe environment.

In addition to his grant-funded work, Dr. Fenk is actively involved in laboratory research.  He has published articles describing new synthetic methods in organic chemistry as well as novel analytical methodologies for use in high school and university teaching laboratories.  His most recent research focuses on the use of mobile phones as scientific instruments.  He has used mobile phones as visible light spectrometers in the determination of aspartame in artificial sweeteners and for the calculation of reaction rate and equilibrium constants.