Calvin College
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Faculty and Staff


Faculty

Ronald L. Blankespoor, Professor, Ph.D., Iowa State University.
Organic Chemistry. Reaction mechanisms; photochemistry of anthraquinones.
Publications and Research Plan
blan@calvin.edu, (616) 957-6174

Roger L. DeKock, Professor, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin
Computational Chemistry. Electronic structure and chemical bonding of small molecules and of transition metal complexes; introduction of computational chemistry into chemistry curriculum.
Publications and Research Plan
deko@calvin.edu, (616) 957-6344

Terry M. Gray, Associate Professor, Ph.D., University of Oregon, Eugene.
Biochemistry. Protein structure, folding, and stability; protein crystallography; protein engineering; computer modeling of biological macromolecular structure and function; T4 lysozyme structure and stability.
Publications and Research Plan
grayt@calvin.edu, (616) 957-7187

Karl James Jalkanen, Visiting Assistant Professor, Ph.D., University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
Theoretical Molecular Biophysics/Biochemistry. Ab initio, semi-empirical and molecular mechanics method development and applications to model biological molecules; prediction of protein secondary and tertiary structure from amino acid sequence using spectroscopic data.
Publications and Research Plan
jalkanen@calvin.edu, (616) 957-6798

Arie Leegwater, Professor, Ph.D., Ohio State University.
Organic Chemistry. History of science, rise of physical chemistry, introduction of quantum concepts into classical chemistry.
Publications and Research Plan
leeg@calvin.edu, (616) 957-6373

Larry L. Louters, Professor, Ph.D. University of Iowa, Iowa City.
Biochemistry. Chromatin structure; physiological effects of histones; exercise physiology and chemical education.
Publications and Research Plan
lout@calvin.edu, (616) 957-6493

Karen C. Muyskens, Associate Professor, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Physical Chemistry. Kinetics and molecular dynamics of gas-phase systems; photodissociation of gas-phase molecules; multiphoton ionization; spectroscopy.
Publications and Research Plan
muyk@calvin.edu, (616) 957-6864

Mark A. Muyskens, Associate Professor, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Physical Chemistry. Photochemistry; spectroscopy; kinetics and molecular dynamics of gas-phase systems.
Publications and Research Plan
muym@calvin.edu, (616) 957-6269

Kenneth Piers, Professor, Ph.D., University of Alberta, Canada.
Organic Chemistry. Organic synthesis, natural product chemistry, issues in chemical education and classroom pedagogy.
Publications and Research Plan
pier@calvin.edu, (616) 957-6491

Kumar Sinniah, Assistant Professor, Ph.D.,
Analytical Chemistry.
Publications and Research Plan
ksinniah@calvin.edu, (616) 957-6058

William Van Doorne, Professor, Ph.D., University of Michigan.
Inorganic Chemistry. Coordination compounds; metal adducts of Vitamin B1 and its decomposition products; synthesis and X-ray crystallography.
Publications and Research Plan
vdor@calvin.edu, (616) 957-6343

Staff

Richard Huisman, Lab Steward
rhuis@calvin.edu, (616) 957-6494