Confirmed Presenters

Click on a speaker's name for more details.

Jean-Claude Bradley
Hai-Lung Dai
Robert de Groot
Kathy Frame
Bruce Fuchs
Diane Jass Ketelhut
Mary Kirchhoff
Dennis Liu
Jeanne Narum
John Penick
Gamal Sherif
Susan Van Gundy


Jean-Claude Bradley is associate professor of chemistry and E-Learning coordinator for the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University in Philadelphia. He leads the UsefulChem project, an initiative started in the summer of 2005 to make the scientific process as transparent as possible by publishing all research work in real time to a collection of public blogs, wikis, and other web pages. Bradley coined the term "Open Notebook Science" to distinguish this approach from other more restricted forms of Open Science. Bradley teaches undergraduate organic chemistry courses with most content freely available online. Openness in research meshes well with openness in teaching. Real data from the laboratory can be used in assignments to practice concepts learned in class.

Bradley has a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and has published articles and obtained patents in the areas of synthetic and mechanistic chemistry, gene therapy, nanotechnology, and scientific knowledge management.

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Hai-Lung Dai is the dean of the College of Science and Technology and the Laura H. Carnell Professor of Chemistry at Temple University. He received his B.S. in chemistry from the National Taiwan University and came to the United States in 1976 for graduate study. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and did postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dai began his academic career at the University of Pennsylvania, where he served as chairman of the Chemistry Department from 1996 to 2002 and was appointed Hirschmann-Makineni Chair Professor in 2002. He was the founding director of the Penn Science Teacher Institute. In 2006 Dai testified in the United States Senate on how to improve science teacher quality in the U.S.

Dai has published more than 150 papers in molecular and surface sciences and has received numerous honors, including a Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar Award, a Sloan Fellowship, a Humboldt Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Coblentz Prize in Molecular Spectroscopy, the Ellis Lippincott Award from the Optical Society of America, the American Chemical Society Philadelphia Section Award, and several named lectureships in China, Japan, and Taiwan. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and currently serves as the chair of its Chemical Physics Division.

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Robert de Groot is the K–12 and Informal Education program manager for the Southern California Earthquake Center, a National Science Foundation and U.S. Geological Survey center headquartered at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He has nine years of classroom experience as a chemistry educator at the California Science Center and Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. His work has taken him into the lab and the field to study stratospheric ice clouds, river ecology, the active earthquake faults of California, and enzyme biochemistry. De Groot holds an M.A. with an emphasis in chemistry and earth science education from Northern Arizona State University and a Ph.D. in science education from the University of Southern California. As a science education researcher, de Groot is currently investigating the role of models and model building in science and engineering. He is interested in understanding how models used by specialists are applied in media and educational settings.

De Groot is an active member of the American Chemical Society and has served the Society nationally as a member of the Committee on Public Relations and Communications and as a member of the Committee on Community Activities. He also serves as a member of the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network subcommittee for the Materials Research Society.

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Kathy Frame is the vice president for Educational Programs at the Biotechnology Institute in Arlington, Virginia. She leads the institute's major efforts to educate the public, especially youth, about the promise and challenge of biotechnology. She is the editor of Your World, the only magazine about biotechnology for students in grades 7–12. She also directs education initiatives such as the National Biotechnology Teacher-Leader Program that is training biotechnology teacher-leaders and the Wyeth Scholars Program that mentors new teachers who teach in underrepresented communities. Frame has implemented the Genzyme-Invitrogen Biotech Educator Award to recognize excellence in biotechnology education, the sanofi-aventis International BioGENEius Challenge, and the state and regional BioGENEius Challenge, programs that recognize outstanding biotechnology research projects of high school students; and the BioDreaming poster competition that invites students to showcase their artistic talent and understanding of biotechnology.

Frame was previously the director of education for the National Association of Biology Teachers, where she served as writer and editor for more than a dozen publications and wrote and administered several major grants. She currently serves as an advisory committee member for numerous organizations. She received her M.S. in biology from Johns Hopkins University and has 15 years of experience teaching life sciences and more than 20 years of experience in professional development for life sciences teachers.

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Bruce Fuchs is the director of the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Office of Science Education. Fuchs is responsible for monitoring a range of science education policy issues and providing advice to NIH leadership. He also directs the creation of a series of K–12 science education curriculum supplements that highlight the medical research findings of the NIH. The NIH Curriculum Supplement Series is designed to meet teachers' educational goals as outlined the the National Science Education Standards and is available free to teachers. The office also actively creates innovative science and career education Web resources, such as the LifeWorks career exploration site, accessible to teachers and students.

Prior to joining NIH, Fuchs—an immunologist who did research on the interaction between the brain and the immune system—was a researcher and teacher on the faculty of the Medical College of Virginia. He had grant support from both the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. He has a B.S. in biology from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in immunology from Indiana State University.

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Diane Jass Ketelhut is an assistant professor of science education at Temple University in Philadelphia. Her research interests center on scientific inquiry, specifically looking at the effects of inquiry on science self-efficacy; using emerging technologies to deliver scientific inquiry curricula on student learning and engagement; helping teachers integrate scientific inquiry into their curricula; and different methods of assessing scientific inquiry. Her current National Science Foundation–funded projects include research on River City, a multi-user virtual environment designed to deliver engaging scientific inquiry-based curriculum to middle schoolers, and "Science in the City," a standards-based scientific inquiry after-school project for elementary and middle school students.

Ketelhut holds certification in secondary school science and was a science curriculum specialist and teacher (science and math) for grades 5–12 for 12 years. She received an Sc.B. in biomedical sciences from Brown University, an M.Ed. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Virginia, and her Ed.D. in learning and teaching from Harvard University.

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Mary Kirchhoff is director of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Education Division, which focuses on science and chemical education from kindergarten through graduate school. She received her Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of New Hampshire and joined the chemistry department at Trinity College in Washington, D.C., upon completion of her doctorate. Kirchhoff spent nine years at Trinity College, where she served as chair of the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. She became involved with green chemistry when she received an Environmental Fellowship from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to work with the U.S. EPA's green chemistry program. Kirchhoff served for three years as assistant director of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute. She is coauthor or coeditor on Designing Safer Polymers, Greener Approaches to Undergraduate Chemistry Experiments, and Going Green: Integrating Green Chemistry into the Curriculum. In 2006 she was elected a Fellow of the AAAS.

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Dennis Liu is a director of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, where he manages a science education website called BioInteractive, aimed primarily at a high school audience. In 2003 BioInteractive won recognition from Scientific American as one of the top five SciTech websites in the biology category. The virtual labs developed by Liu's team won the Pirelli Top Prize in 2002 for educational media promoting the diffusion of scientific thinking and culture. BioInteractive's Holiday Lectures on Science series has won Aurora and Telly awards for educational programming and is used by thousands of teachers worldwide.

Liu trained in neuroscience and genetics, working with the zebrafish and C. elegans experimental systems. He earned a doctorate in biology from the University of Oregon and, following postdoctoral studies, held a faculty position in the genetics department at the University of Washington. While in Seattle he became increasingly interested in science writing and education, in particular the use of multimedia for conveying complex scientific concepts, and developed educational programs for Videodiscovery (Genetics: Fundamentals and Frontiers and Bioethics Forums) and for Microsoft (The Symptom Finder and Encarta Genetics). Liu serves on the editorial board of the influential online journal CBE: Life Sciences Education, and is an advisor for the NOVA series NOVA scienceNOW.

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Jeanne Narum is founding director of Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL), an informal national alliance of educators, administrators, and other stakeholders working to strengthen undergraduate programs in mathematics, engineering, and the various fields of science. As director, Narum has a variety of responsibilities, all focused on building leadership at the institutional and national levels to ensure that American undergraduates have access to robust learning experience in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. A major responsibility is to coordinate the volunteer efforts of a national cadre of change agents, whose experience shape PKAL institutes, seminars, workshops, and publications, illustrating best practices in the work of reform. PKAL's goal is to encourage the design and development of an intellectual, physical, and organizational infrastructure that supports strong learning in STEM fields. Narum serves on advisory boards at the Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence; at Change and Sustainability in Higher Education; at Research Corporation; and at Benedict College. She has also served on several task forces for the National Research Council.

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John Penick is the head of the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, North Carolina State University and chair of the Committee on Developments in Science Education, International Council of Associations for Science Education in Raleigh, North Carolina. He received his Ph.D. in science education at Florida State University and taught briefly at Loyola University in Chicago before spending 23 years at the University of Iowa. He has been at North Carolina State University since 1998. His interests include the role of teachers, analysis of teaching, design and implementation of teacher education programs, and policy issues.

Penick is past president of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT), and the Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE). He served three terms on the board of the Council for Scientific Society Presidents and on the board of the International Council of Associations for Science Education (ICASE). The recipient of numerous awards, Penick is most proud of being named the Outstanding Science Educator (1987) and Outstanding Mentor (1997) by ASTE. In 2004 NABT awarded him Honorary Membership, that association's highest honor. Penick has authored or coauthored 33 books and major monographs and more than 250 articles and reviews in 60 journals. He has made more than 450 presentations to schools and professional associations and conducted more than 500 days of workshops throughout the United States and 30 other countries.

Gamal Sherif is a teaching and writing a new science course at the Science Leadership Academy, Philadelphia. The course, "Integrated biochemistry," fosters hands-on learning that incorporates biology and chemistry perspectives. Sherif has supported planning, professional development, and school enrichment for schools in Philadelphia and across the U.S.

Sherif earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from the State University of New York–Binghamton and after spending five years as a high school teacher and grants administrator with the School District of Philadelphia, Sherif enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his Principal Certificate as well as an M.S. in educational administration. He also taught middle school at the Episcopal Academy, where he stewarded project-based learning around ecology and field biology.

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Susan Van Gundy is the director of Education and Strategic Partnerships for the National Science Digital Library (NSDL), a federally funded online collection of resources, tools, and services that support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and research at all levels. Van Gundy works with leading educational organizations focused on STEM education as well as with the universities, museums, federal agencies, and professional societies that constitute NSDL's network of more than 200 resource providers. She leads the NSDL teacher professional development program, delivering presentations and workshops online and around the country.

Van Gundy has been involved in designing and teaching programs for students, educators, and the general public for more than 16 years. Before joining NSDL, she directed two of the largest hands-on science outreach programs in the country as the former outreach programs manager for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and the director of outreach education and science classes for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Her scientific background includes research experiences in geology, archaeology, and marine biology. She holds a B.S. in geology from Oberlin College and an M.S. in geosciences from The Pennsylvania State University.

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