Community Service:  Education and activism related to large-scale extraction of natural gas from unconventional reserves in New York State.

Other Interests:  Music (vocal and guitar), outdoor recreation, fiction writing.

Dr. Gallagher’s research interests are in the roles of hydration and molecular plasticity in macromolecular structure and function. She is currently examining the hydration of newly discovered, highly active anti-freeze proteins using computational techniques. Other projects in development include examining the differences in dynamics between psychrophilic (cold-adapted) proteins and their mesophilic counterparts and studying changes in conformational dynamics upon aminoglycoside binding to RNA.

She is co-principal investigator of a National Science Foundation-funded project entitled PREDICT, for "Predicting Results and Evaluating Data using Insights from Computational Techniques," which is designed to support the introduction of computational chemistry to the College’s chemistry curriculum through a graduated approach. Dr. Gallagher is also the Assistant Director of the Science Discovery Center, a small interactive science center on the SUNY Oneonta campus.

Dr. Helser grew up in Speedway, Indiana, home of the Indy 500, and earned a B.A. with Honors from Manchester College in 1967. After his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1972, he did postdoctoral research on ribosome biosynthesis at UC Irvine, California, the Roswell Institute in Buffalo, and Brown University before his first “real” position as Assistant Professor at Millersville University, PA, teaching biology and biochemistry. After a summer learning yeast genetics, he and his family finally settled in Oneonta in the fall of 1980.

With continuing research interests in ribosome biosynthesis and chemistry education, Dr. Helser has been pioneering active, student-oriented classroom methods and guided-inquiry discovery projects in labs for Introductory Biochemistry, Macromolecular Biochemistry and Biochemistry II courses. Among over sixty of his professional publications are thirty-eight word and rebus puzzles and card games.

Lawrence Armstrong is Professor of Chemistry as well as the Coordinator of Health Professions Advisement and teaches various courses in organic chemistry.  Dr. Armstrong received his B.A. degree with a major in chemistry from Oberlin College in 1960 and his Ph. D. in organic chemistry from the University of Rochester in 1966.  He came to the College at Oneonta in 1965.  His specific interests are in synthetic organic chemistry and applications of NMR spectroscopy to organic chemistry.

Dr. Armstrong is a member of the Board of Directors of the Oneonta Concert Association, and a member of the Board of Trustees and Treasurer of the Village Improvement Society of Gilbertsville, NY.  He enjoys hiking, particularly in central New York State and the Catskill mountains.

John Schaumloffel's interests are in analytical and environmental chemistry education and the cycling and accumulation of trace elements in organisms, sediments, soils and ground and surface waters. After finishing his B.A. degree in Natural Sciences (Geology and Chemistry) from Castleton State College, he relocated to Pullman, Washington to attend Washington State University (GO COUGS!). There he studied the accumulation of trace elements and heavy metals in tree growth rings as well as the oxidation of metal sulfide minerals in contaminated freshwater lakes and rivers. After a brief post-doctoral experience at WSU, Dr. Schaumloffel served as a Lecturer in Analytical and Environmental Chemistry in the same department for two years. He then spent two years at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth (www. umassd.edu) as Assistant Professor of Chemistry. In 2001, Dr. Schaumloffel joined the faculty at SUNY Oneonta and is currently an Associate Professor of Chemistry, and served as Department Chair for the last two years.

His research interests have spurred Dr. Schaumloffel (and several excellent colleagues in the departments of Secondary Education, Physics & Astronomy, and Earth Sciences), to have helped to secure more than $1.1 million dollars in external federal funding for SUNY Oneonta since 2003. 

Dr. Schaumloffel will be on sabbatical during the 2009-10 academic year, beginning in June 2009.

After several years as an analytical scientist in the pharmaceutical industry, she decided to make the switch to the field of university education, and after two years of honing her teaching skills at Hudson Valley Community College and Albany College of Pharmacy, she came to SUNY Oneonta in 2008.  Dr. Thomas-Smith has lately become co-principal investigator of a National Science Foundation-funded project entitled PREDICT, for "Predicting Results and Evaluating Data using Insights from Computational Techniques," which is designed to support the introduction of computational chemistry to the College’s chemistry curriculum through a graduated approach.

Other Research Interests:

• Environmental Chemistry of Natural Waters - Exploring the role of natural water constituents in the fate of chemicals from anthropogenic (man-made) sources.
• Industrial Analytical Chemistry - Evaluating modifications of current industry practices in pharmaceutical analysis, so as to reduce hazardous liquid waste.

Interests other than chemistry and education: Reading psychological thrillers, houseplants, travel, spending time with her husband and two sons.

Dr. Bill Vining graduated SUNY Oneonta in 1981.  He earned his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1985, and worked several years in the industry as a “laundry scientist” at Johnson Wax.  Dr. Vining returned to Oneonta in 1988 as an assistant professor at Hartwick College.  In 1996, he moved on to UMass Amherst, and directed their General Chemistry program, which serves 1400 students every semester.  He was awarded the University of Massachusetts Distinguished Teaching Award in 1999, and the UMass College of Natural Sciences Outstanding Teacher Award in 2003.  At UMass, he also ran a research group dedicated to developing interactive educational software, which included 15 professionals, graduate students, undergraduates, post-doctoral students, programmers, and artists.  100,000 chemistry students a year across the country now use the OWL interactive electronic homework system, authored by Dr. Vining and his UMass collaborators.

In 2005, Bill Vining came back “home” to his alma mater SUNY Oneonta.  He thoroughly enjoys the high level of personal interaction possible with students and faculty in a small-to-medium department like ours.  Dr. Vining’s students have opportunities to undertake independent study projects under his guidance.  And he continues his research efforts to incorporate the latest innovations in computer technology to create superior methods of chemistry education.