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New Position Fall 2014:

Chemistry Professor & Chair

St. Edward's University

Email: shepherd@stedwards.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Previously Chemistry Professor Westminster College

Salt Lake City, UT 

In all my courses, I use a student-centered method of instruction based on the Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) technique. In the classroom students work in small groups on specially designed guided inquiry materials. These "activities" supply students with data or information followed by leading questions designed to guide them toward formulation of their own conclusions - essentially following the scientific method. My role as the instructor is to facilitate discussion and guide students through this process.

As a computational chemist, the introduction of molecular modeling and simulation programs throughout the curriculum is an obvious passion of mine. I have developed a number of class activities and two entire courses (Scientific Computing and Molecular Modeling) through which students not only gain fundamental molecular insights from the use of computers in chemistry, but also an appreciation of the complexity and assumptions inherent in each computation.

 

The focus of my research efforts with undergraduates involves the application of computational methods to study biological or environmentally relevant systems.  Most recently we have been using a coarse-grained approach that is both computationally accurate and inexpensive to provide predictive insight for a variety of different aqueous systems. Undergraduates learn to use a freely available molecular dynamics package (LAMMPS) in conjunction with a simple coarse-grained model to study novel physical chemistry applications.

 

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