"I am currently a professor of chemistry at Samford University. I teach Foundations of Chemistry 1 and 2 (genchem), organic chemistry 1 and 2, and research internship. My deep passion for chemistry comes out in my active classrooms, weird chemistry analogies, and patient pastoral approach. Give me a chance to help you and I'm sure you'll succeed.

I love to teach organic chemistry, but I'm convinced I can teach anyone who is willing to learn any subject within my proficiency. I can approach the subjects from many different angles and can adapt to your level of need to find out the best way you learn. I love teaching in groups or one on one. I love this stuff! It's my life!

Great teaching comes from inviting the student to imagine what is possible, not only in the world but also in themselves, and to know they are capable of doing amazing things. Bringing one's passion and excitement for the subject and pouring it into the lectures and the research is absolutely essential to student success and the ultimate reward: discovery. It is discovery and ultimately the sharing of that discovery through publication that we strive for. Contribution to the world is the goal of the chemist, and the passion to do it drives us. Showing our students that the drugs, materials, sensors, foods, and methods which keep our world going start in a flask of things either dug from the earth, or distilled out of crude oil, simplifies the concept of synthesis. As in chemical synthesis, in education we must take students' knowledge and build them up step by step.

I believe that we must fundamentally avoid the fear of being wrong in front of our peers and learn the power of not knowing, for it is in our ignorance that question and research are born. In my graduate organic seminar very few people would ask questions. "I don't know," is where we begin rather than an end.

I live with my amazing wife and our four boys under 10 in Homewood, AL.

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