Chemistry
Department of Biological, Chemical, and Physical Sciences

Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Posted: July 10, 2006

Position Description

The position:
Tenure-track Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry to begin August 2007. Primary teaching responsibility is in organic chemistry, including lecture and laboratory, as well as one upper division lecture or laboratory course per year, which might include advanced organic chemistry laboratory, synthetic organic chemistry, or other courses in the candidate’s field of specialization.

Requirements:
Candidates must have a PhD, expertise in modern methods of organic chemistry, a demonstrated commitment to teaching, and the ability to engage undergraduates and non-thesis MS students in research. We prefer a candidate with postdoctoral and/or prior teaching experience, grant writing experience, and an interest in collaborative teaching or research.

The program: Roosevelt University’s chemistry program is an ACS-approved program operating within our Department of Biological, Chemical and Physical Sciences. The Department offers degrees including BA and BS in Biology, BS in Allied Health, BS and BA in Chemistry, and BS in Electronics Engineering Technology. The department also offers an interdisciplinary non-thesis M.S. in Biotechnology and Chemical Science, as well as a variety of minors and certificates. Enrollment in the chemistry program is approximately 25 BA and BS chemistry majors and 35 MS students. Additionally, the chemistry program provides service courses in general and organic chemistry to the Department’s 140 biology majors and to non-major general education students.

Roosevelt University’s historic campus is located in downtown Chicago’s South Loop. A second campus is located in the northwestern suburb of Schaumburg. The chemistry major is offered at the Schaumburg campus, and all upper-level lecture and laboratory courses are offered at that campus. Service-level courses including general and organic chemistry are offered at both campuses. The downtown campus hosts general and organic chemistry teaching laboratories, and a limited instrumentation area with a GC, FTIR, and Spec-20 spectrophotometers. The Schaumburg campus includes teaching laboratories, a faculty research laboratory, and an instrumentation lab housing the majority of our instrumentation, including 60-MHz multinuclear FT-NMR, FTIR, Raman spectrophotometer, AA spectrophotometer, UV/Vis/NIR spectrophotometer, HPLC, GC’s, and electrochemistry equipment. Full-time laboratory managers and teaching assistants are available to support faculty teaching at both campuses.

The students:
Our majors are a dynamic mix of working adults and traditional-age students, including part-time and full-time majors. About 50 percent of our students are minority students. Most of our students are natives of the Chicago metropolitan area and intend to remain in this region. Candidates with an interest in mentoring minority students, working adult students, and first generation college students are particularly encouraged to apply.

The faculty:
The Department of Biological, Chemical and Physical Sciences consists of 12 full-time faculty, including six biologists, four chemists (including the advertised position), a physicist and an geographer / earth scientist. Faculty specialties include molecular biology, microbiology, organismic biology, genetics, and cell biology/biochemistry, as well as inorganic, analytical/environmental, physical chemistry as well as the advertised position in organic chemistry. We are a friendly and dynamic mix of young and established faculty who collaborate actively in matters of scheduling and departmental administration, as well as in teaching, grant writing and research.

Our expectations:
The university’s standard teaching load is three lecture courses per semester, however, science faculty are awarded partial teaching credit for recitation sections and laboratories. First-year faculty members receive a one-course reduction All faculty members are expected to advise majors, participate actively in curricular and administrative decision-making at the Department level, engage in service at the university and community level, and pursue appropriate scholarly and professional activities. Laboratory science faculty are expected to involve undergraduate and MS students in research projects on campus or in collaboration with nearby institutions. Research support includes a modest start-up budget and opportunities to apply for summer research funds and sabbaticals, which are open to and encouraged for junior faculty.

Salary:
Salary is competitive, and commensurate with experience. The salary is on a nine-month basis with summers available for research or additional teaching..

The future:
Recent replacements and additions of faculty positions, as well as support for instrument acquisitions, faculty startup, summer research support, research leaves, and research and professional development travel, are good indications of our solid status at the university. We’re enhancing our curriculum, improving our instrumentation, increasing our enrollment and anticipating adding a new faculty member who is excited by the prospect of meeting the challenges ahead. We are actively engaged in improvements intended to continue ACS approval of the program, and to extend the number and variety of ACS-approved concentrations within the BS degree.

The university:
Roosevelt University is a private, nonsectarian institution founded in 1945 with a mission of educational access and social justice. Enrollment at the two campuses now totals about 7,500.

Application.

Candidates should send a letter of application, CV, concise statements of teaching philosophy and of research plans, undergraduate and graduate transcripts, and three letters of reference to:

Prof. Joshua Telser

Organic Chemistry Search Committee

Roosevelt University

430 S. Michigan Ave

Chicago IL 60605.

312-341-3687; jtelser@roosevelt.edu.

Women and minority candidates are encouraged to apply.

Screening begins Nov. 6, 2006 and continues until filled.

Roosevelt University is an EO/AAE employer.

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