William J. Baron Director of Freshman Chemistry and Senior Academic Professional Office: Boggs 1-108 and Chem Annex 47 Phone: 404-385-2808 or 404-385-0664 Fax: 404-894-7452 E-mail William Baron

B.S., State University of New York at Buffalo, 1968; Ph.D., Princeton University, 1972; Postdoctoral Fellow, Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany, 1972-1973; Postdoctoral Fellow, Columbia University, 1973-1974

 

Responsibilities

Bill brings to our department almost 30 years of managerial R&D experience in Bell Labs (AT&T and Lucent). Bill is the Director of the Freshmen Chemistry Program and provides supervisory support for the instructional staff. His leadership skills have been used to (1) supervise and mentor the Academic Professionals in the department, (2) coordinate scheduling of all courses taught in our department, (3) teach numerous undergraduate lectures, (4) serve as a liaison between the Academic Professionals and Academic Faculty, (5) offer academic advisement to undergraduate chemistry majors, (6) conducts course transfer equivalency analysis for freshmen chemistry courses, (7) lead FASET and Connect with Tech responsibilities for the department, (8) undergraduate teaching assistant training and assessment, (9) chair the committee for Environmental Health and Safety for the department and (10) chair the institute wide committee on Chemical and Environmental Safety.

Teaching Interests

Bill teaches multiple sections of General Chemistry (CHEM 1310) Organic Chemistry I (CHEM 2311) and Organic Chemistry II (CHEM 2312). With General Chemistry being the largest lectures taught in our department, he and other faculty who are devoted to General Chemistry implemented the use of the Personal Response System (PRS), an advancement that has become very popular among students on campus. Bill has also led the development of curriculum standards for General Chemistry to encourage consistency in the content covered among faculty who teach this course.

Scholarship

Bill provides leadership to the freshmen chemistry faculty committee that oversees the textbook and technology utilized in General Chemistry. Recent changes have included the adoption of a new textbook and integrated technology customized for GT students. The adoption of web-based technology across the entire Gen Chem program for pre-lecture assignments, in-lecture quizzes and post-lecture assignments has facilitated the standardized of the curriculum across the large freshmen chemistry program.