Dr. Dietmar Kennepohl

Biography

I graduated Summa Cum Laude from McMaster University with a B.Sc. (Honours) degree in chemistry and continued directly my doctoral studies at the University of Alberta in main group synthetic chemistry. Before coming to Athabasca University I also did a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Guelph and was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Universität Göttingen in Germany. Most of my teaching experience has been in a distributed and online setting. I hold both university and national teaching awards. Over the years, I was a visiting professor at the University of Otago (New Zealand), Universität Göttingen (Germany), Universität Freiburg (Germany), and the Open University (England) while on sabbatical leaves. During my tenure at the university I have been B.Sc. Program Director, Chair of Centre for Science, Director of ARBRI, and Associate (and Acting) Vice President Academic. I have also been heavily involved in science outreach initiatives including public lectures, chemistry demonstrations, invited classroom speaker, ATA Science Council workshops and talks, as well as being chief judge at the Edmonton Regional Science Fair. I was on Alberta Council of Admissions and Transfer for almost ten years and am currently Vice Chair on the Board of the Alberta Rural Development Network as well as a Director of Local Sections on the Board of the Chemical Society of Canada.

Research Interest

My research interests have included chemical education as well as petroleum, main group and coordination chemistry. My research in chemical education includes online chemistry courses and concentrates on the use of innovative distance delivery methods for undergraduate laboratory work.