Charles A. Dana Professor of Chemistry Tom Wenzel. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

There’s a time to be passive and a time to be active.

When you’re hoping to learn something, passive is sitting in a classroom and (hopefully) soaking in the lecture.

And there’s active, where you’re taking a hands-on approach to solving problems that have their roots in real-world situations. Sometimes, especially in the sciences, that’s the best way to learn.

Tom Wenzel, Charles A. Dana Professor of Chemistry at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, favors that second approach in his teaching. And the National Science Foundation agrees with him: The NSF recently awarded Wenzel and a collaborator at the University of Iowa $900,000 to further a practice called “active learning” at schools across the country.

In a 2013 file image, Tom Wenzel consults with Cira Mollings Puentes ’16 of Kingston, Jamaica (at left), and Mira Carey-Hatch ’14 of Laconia, N.H. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

“This is a way to help faculty meaningfully change the way they teach,” Wenzel says. “To move away from lectures to doing in-class group work, and away from ‘recipe-driven’ laboratories to more open-ended experiments. And to move toward enabling students to design experiments, and figure out what the data means and whether it’s supporting their hypothesis.”

Provided through the NSF’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program, the grant supports Wenzel’s longtime leadership in creating an adaptable analytical chemistry curriculum that will enable instructors at all types of colleges and universities to implement active learning.

In this latest phase of the project, teachers of analytical chemistry from different institutions will take part in a series of workshops and follow-up activities designed to instill the methods and goals of active learning in the classroom and lab.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ will receive some $632,000 over three years. It’s the third and final NSF grant for the project, which the foundation funded in 2008 and again in 2011 to support the development of online curriculum materials.

The balance from the latest award will go to Wenzel’s collaborator, Associate Professor Renee Cole of the University of Iowa, a specialist in chemistry education. Cole will assess how effectively workshop participants assimilated the active-learning approach, and how effective that approach was with teaching their students.

Wenzel is something of a pioneer in active learning, says Professor of Chemistry Paula Schlax, this year’s recipient of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching.

“Tom teaches analytical chemistry using methods that are original, and before his outreach through this curriculum project, quite unusual,” says Schlax.

“The approaches that he uses — active-learning exercises in the classroom, laboratory experiments that are inquiry-based and involve ‘real-world problems’ — are repeatedly reported to be among the best in helping students succeed in science courses and develop a sense of belonging in the community of scientists.”

“Tom teaches using methods that are original, and before his outreach through this curriculum project, quite unusual.”

Wenzel describes this latest phase of the project as a pilot to test the efficacy of multiple active-learning training sessions for chemistry instructors. “For a lot of people, a half-day symposium doesn’t get them to say, ‘I’m going to totally change the way I teach,'” he notes.

Instead, the training will entail successive sessions — national workshops followed by regional events, in turn bolstered by follow-ups such as visits to participants’ home institutions.

“If, three years from now, we can provide data saying that what we’re doing works — people are actually changing the way they teach — that could set the rest of the group up to continue this project,” Wenzel says.

“It could serve as a model for other areas in chemistry, and maybe other STEM fields in general.” He adds that the project is also designed to increase diversity in chemical instruction and, by extension, other realms of math and science.

“We have now run two workshops for faculty at historically black or Hispanic-serving institutions,” Wenzel says. “We had 52 participants, and many of them have great stories about how they’ve incorporated more active learning in their classes and labs. Several have gotten grants funded for curriculum work that came out of our workshops.”

A member of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ chemistry faculty since 1981, Wenzel’s research involves sophisticated techniques for identifying enantiomers — molecules that are mirror images of each other but, despite that similarity, can have very different reactive effects.

Earlier this year, Wenzel received a new entry on his long list of professional honors and achievements as the American Chemical Society designated him an ACS Fellow — a designation recognizing contributions to both the society and the field of chemistry as a whole.

The designation came as Wenzel, appointed Charles A. Dana Professor of Chemistry at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 1997, anticipates retirement within a few years.

The Charles A. Dana Professor of Chemistry, Tom Wenzel started at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 1981. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

An analytical chemist at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ since 1981, Tom Wenzel specializes in sophisticated techniques for identifying enantiomers — molecules that are mirror images of each other but, despite that similarity, can have very different reactive effects.

The fact that Wenzel is responsible for 86 publications related to his research (out of a total of 162), including two books, tells you something about his productivity.

And the fact that 61 of those publications were co-authored by ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students — 82 students, all told — tells you something about Wenzel’s belief in the value of undergraduate research.

Wenzel was recently honored for those contributions, among others, to the field of chemistry by the discipline’s foremost professional organization. The American Chemical Society designated Wenzel an ACS Fellow — an honor that takes the whole scope of his achievements into account.

The designation comes as Wenzel, appointed Charles A. Dana Professor of Chemistry at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 1997, anticipates retirement within a few years. “This honor is largely a recognition of accomplishments over a long career — you know, you don’t get it just from one big moment,” he says.

“So it’s rewarding to have my profession say, ‘We appreciate the things you’ve done both for chemistry and the principal professional organization in chemistry.’ It’s really gratifying to know that the work I’ve done for so many years is recognized.”

“This honor is largely a recognition of accomplishments over a long career.”

The ACS designation is the latest in a long line of professional honors for Wenzel, not to mention grants for research and educational programming that total nearly $3 million.

“This honor highlights what we at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ have known all along — as a researcher, an advocate for his profession, and most of all as a teacher, Tom Wenzel is a powerhouse in the field of chemistry,” says ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ President Clayton Spencer.

The ACS named 57 Fellows for 2016. Wenzel is one of only three in the group who represent small liberal arts colleges. The ACS bestows the Fellow designation on the basis of achievement in two areas: professional contributions to the field of chemistry itself, and volunteer service to the society.

Leading the list in the former category is his advocacy for undergraduate research. “For many students, participating in research can be the most profound educational experience they have in their four years at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½,” Wenzel says.

“One reason is that they often have far more independence in their research project than in coursework, and they have to put their knowledge and skills to use trying to complete their work. Because many experiments don’t work the first time through, the students are forced to use their knowledge to try other strategies.

“Trying to solve a problem that is original, where the answer isn’t known, where they are trying to create knowledge, is usually something new for them. I believe that for many, it takes learning to a new level.”

“Trying to solve a problem that is original, where the answer isn’t known, where they are trying to create knowledge, is usually something new for students.”

In 2010 the ACS gave Wenzel its Research at an Undergraduate Institution Award, lauding broadly recognized research that has contributed significantly to both chemistry and the professional development of undergraduate students.

In 2002, Wenzel was the first chemist to receive the Council on Undergraduate Research Fellows award, presented to CUR members who have developed nationally esteemed research programs involving undergrads.

And, over a 25-year-span, he has received seven National Science Foundation Research in Undergraduate Institutions grants supporting student participation in his research.

Wenzel’s contributions to his profession also include leadership in the effort to re-imagine how analytical chemistry is taught. He advocates for “active learning”: engaging students with specific, complex problems that reflect real-world situations, rather than marching them through a catalog of topics and recipe-style lab work with no context.

In this 2007 file image, Tom Wenzel is shown with student researchers in his Dana Chemistry lab. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

In 2011, he led a group of faculty from 25 institutions that received $600,000 from the NSF to create an in-depth, online chemistry curriculum based on active learning. Aimed at undergraduates, the materials are adaptable for diverse students at a broad variety of institutions, from small liberal arts schools like ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ to large public universities.

The curriculum work addresses another facet of Wenzel’s career: his commitment to diversifying the profession of chemistry, bringing in more women and people from other groups underrepresented in the field. “There’s a rather large body of literature that shows that an active-learning approach to teaching is useful at retaining members of historically underrepresented groups in the sciences,” he says.

In one of the most recent developments of his curriculum development work, Wenzel and his collaborators have presented two workshops for faculty at historically black or Hispanic-serving institutions.

“We’ve had 52 participants from those institutions, many of whom have given us great stories about how they’ve changed their teaching of classes and labs to incorporate more active learning,” Wenzel explains. “Several have gotten grants for curriculum work that came out of our workshops.”

An ACS member since 1978, Wenzel’s service to the organization is aligned with his professional interests. Among other activities, he has been a member of the ACS Committee on Professional Training since 2011, and is in the second of his three years as chair.

The committee operates a national certification program for chemistry programs at colleges and universities. Some 160 doctoral and more than 700 four-year programs in the U.S. have the certification, and more than a dozen apply for it annually.

Returning to the work he has done to advance his field, Wenzel points out that support from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ has been key to his success. “ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ provides an environment that allows faculty members to meaningfully contribute to their profession,” he says.

“A lot of faculty who come here aspire to that.”

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College chemistry professor Thomas Wenzel has received the American Chemical Society’s 25th Award for Research at an Undergraduate Institution.

Wenzel, a Lewiston resident who came to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 1981, is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Chemistry. The ACS award recognizes faculty at undergraduate institutions whose research has been widely recognized and who have contributed significantly to both the field of chemistry and the professional development of students.

The ACS award “is the single largest honor that a chemical researcher at an undergraduate institution could hope for,” says Rachel Narehood Austin, chair of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ chemistry department. “For Tom, it’s a profound recognition of his substantial accomplishments over a very vibrant career.”

The award, including grants of $5,000 to Wenzel and $5,000 to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, bestows priceless professional validation. It acknowledges the distinctive challenges of conducting meaningful research at undergraduate institutions, in contrast to large research universities that offer extensive infrastructure, big budgets and the assistance of experienced graduate students in the lab.

As an analytical chemist, Wenzel conducts research on the development of methods to identify and quantify chemicals in mixtures.

Specifically, he studies techniques for discerning chirality — a phenomenon in which two molecules are mirror images of each other. In some cases, such compounds have significant reactive differences. A “right-handed” molecule of a given chemical might have beneficial medical properties, but its “left-handed” equivalent will be toxic.

Wenzel is known internationally for this research that has resulted in more than 120 publications and attracted some $2 million in external grants, including six rounds of funding from the National Science Foundation.

During Wenzel’s time at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, 107 students have collaborated in his research and 76 have co-authored peer-reviewed publications about the work. He has been particularly active in involving students from groups historically underrepresented in the sciences in his work.

“The student is involved in all the stages of implementing a project,” he says. “Students are expected to become equal partners — offering suggestions, going through the literature, sorting out problems along the way.”

Courtney O’Farrell, a 2007 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ graduate in biochemistry, is a former Wenzel student and research collaborator now researching anti-cancer drugs and pursuing a doctorate at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She spent a summer in Wenzel’s lab designing and testing molecules for use in nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer analysis.

“Tom had five students in his lab, and we all had our own projects, which really allowed us to gain confidence and independence,” she says. “He was good about being available for questions and advice, but also gave me the independence to come up with experiments on my own. It was the perfect balance.”

She adds, “Tom was an amazing mentor. He taught me how to have confidence in myself and to be an independent thinker.”

Wenzel calls the ACS award doubly gratifying, honoring both his direct contribution to chemistry — his ongoing research — and the ripple effect created by inspiring students to pursue careers in science.

He and ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ are a good match in this regard, he explains, citing the level of support and encouragement the college gives to student research. People, he says, are “inherently interested in how things work in the world. That’s what science really is. In doing research, students really start to participate in exploring the unknown.”

Students at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College this summer explored crime-scene chemistry and cultural diversity in mathematics through a program designed to make math and science more inviting to groups underrepresented in those fields.

Eleven members of the class of 2011 from as near as Portland and as far away as California got an early start on their ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ careers through the inaugural Hughes Summer Scholars Program. Funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the program is designed to encourage a wider range of students to study science and math, and to stick with those disciplines.

In addition to providing an accelerated introduction to college-level studies, the program encourages participants to form intellectual and social bonds with each other, with other science and math students, and with faculty and staff.

The participants, who will return to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in September for the start of regular classes, took two courses — each the equivalent of a regular semester course — for full credit during the program, which ran June 24-Aug. 3. They lived together in student housing with two upperclass ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students, spending long days on academic work and breaking for recreational activities such as the Yarmouth Clam Festival on weekends.

“Academically, it’s been incredibly rigorous,” said Tom Wenzel, the program’s director and Charles A. Dana Professor of Chemistry at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. “Their schedule, in terms of hours that they’re working per week, was far heavier than a student would have during the regular semester. This intensity has gotten them prepped for working at a high level.”

As Wenzel points out, “it’s very important to realize that this isn’t in any way a remedial program.” The were selected from students that ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, known for its high admissions standards, had already accepted.

“These are all excellent students,” Wenzel explains. “We’re just trying to give them an earlier start to make them better-prepared to succeed in the fall.”

The program introduced participants to the ways of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ without the social pressure of having the full student body around, but with the moral support of their fellow Hughes Scholars and a closely attentive group of staff, faculty and upperclass students.

“That’s one of the big advantages of the program, the fact that we’ve been able to become so familiar with the staff and the school itself,” said Davina Dukuly of Lowell, Mass. “I expected it to be like the first day of school — you’re just there and have to fend for yourself. But I’ve seen that ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ isn’t like that.”

“We really emphasized the idea of forming study groups, comparing notes from classes, things like that,” Wenzel said. “So the hope is that they won’t have a tendency to become isolated in the fall — they’ll already have this social network.”

“In high school, I used to get really frustrated because I’d be at home alone trying to figure everything out,” said Dukuly. “But with the 11 of us, we’re all doing the same thing and we can work in groups. It’s been really helpful.”

Wenzel taught the first-year seminar “Forensic Chemistry,” which uses the popularity of CSI-style television programs as an entrée to the study of fundamental concepts in chemistry. Combining classroom instruction and laboratory work performed on ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ state-of-the-art analytical equipment, the students examined and reported on lifelike clues to fictitious crimes — such as a murder whose investigation entailed the analysis of DNA on a cigarette butt.

Grace Coulombe, director of the college’s Mathematics and Statistics Workshop, taught the course “Mathematics Across Time and Cultures.” The course used activities and practices from other cultures — for example, kin relations — as a means to explore contemporary mathematical topics.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a longtime funding partner of the college, share an interest in promoting wider participation in the sciences. The new initiative resembles a six-week program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

“Programs like this might be fairly common, but many of them are far shorter,” Wenzel explained. “The idea of having students come early, spend six weeks and take two courses for credit that actually count on their transcripts is rather uncommon.”

He adds, “They’ve been just an amazing, fun group of students. Here in the heat of the summer, with six hours of class and lab a day plus homework, and still this group has just been energized, enthusiastic.”

“It is the summer, and cramming a semester of math and chem into six weeks would make any 17-year-old go crazy — giving up your summer before college,” said Shameena Khan, a Hughes Summer Scholar from the Bronx, N.Y. “But it was worth it in the end.”