Chemistry Tapa dura - 2004

John Olmsted III is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at California State University, Fullerton, from which he retired in 2003 after nearly 40 years of teaching and research in general and experimental physical chemistry. John was honored as the CSUF Outstanding Professor in 1997-98 and served as department chair from 1998 to 2001. In addition to 25 years at CSUF, he taught for 12 years at the American University of Beirut. He had visiting teaching/research appointments at UCLA and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and did research at the Max-Planck-Institute fur Biophysikalische Chemie (Gottingen, Germany), the University of California at San Diego, and Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, NM.

John received his BS degree in chemistry from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University) and his PhD in physical chemistry from UC Berkeley, where he also did postdoctoral work at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. He has more than 30 referred research publications and has also published regularly on chemical education topics in the Journal of Chemical Education.

In his retirement, besides continuing to write chemistry textbooks, John Keeps busy with his interests in gardening, photography, and the philosophy of chemistry. He and his wife Eileen enjoy traveling, dancing, and visiting with their three married children and two grandchildren.

Greg Williams is an Adjunct Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oregon. He earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry at UCLA and a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at Princeton University. He has taught and conducted research at the University of Oregon, California State University, Fullerton, UCLA, and the University of California, Irvine. Outside the classroom, Greg's professional work is concentrated on developing graphics, digital animation, and interactive multimedia for teaching chemistry.

When he is not teaching or writing about chemistry, Greg can be found somewhere in the western United States, backpacking, climbing, skiing, fly fishing, or kayaking. He also sings low bass with the Eugene Vocal Arts Ensemble. Greg lives in Eugene, Oregon, with his wife Trudy Cameron, a Professor of Economics at the University of Oregon, and their daughters, Casey and Perry. He absolutely insists on enjoying life.