UNews - chemist

Alumna of the Year Preuss realizes destiny

trevor.kenney — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 22:24:20 +0000

Do scientists believe in fate? If you talk to Dr. Kathryn Preuss (BSc '95) about her academic life and professional career, you'll notice a string of coincidences and happenings that seem to have set her on a path that's led Preuss to her current position as an associate professor at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Guelph and a Tier II Canada Research Chair in the Chemistry of Molecular Materials.

It started when Preuss was a school kid, and her father, Dr. Peter Preuss, taught philosophy at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

"I remember going to the Christmas parties, running around and having fun on campus as a child," recalls Preuss. "The U of L has always been a positive environment for me."

Preuss values the research opportunities she enjoyed as an undergraduate student at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

Attending the U of L was therefore pretty much in the cards for Preuss from the beginning. She knew the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ well and was aware of its great undergrad reputation across the country. Preuss enrolled at the U of L with the intention of taking her talent for science into the field of medicine. But as it happened, fate once again played its hand.

"When you're a girl and you're good at science, everybody tells you that you should become a doctor, so that's what I assumed I'd be," says Preuss. "But then I met professor René Boeré."

In 1992, Preuss had earned the highest marks among all first-year chemistry students. At the end of the year, Boeré approached Preuss about accepting a summer job in his lab and she jumped at the opportunity. In need of a job, the idea of getting paid to do something she was genuinely interested in was too enticing to pass up.

Preuss spent that summer conducting experiments on inorganic synthesis and doing all sorts of exciting things that very few first-year undergrad students ever have the chance to do.

"It was eye opening," recalls Preuss. "I couldn't believe I was getting paid to do all that cool stuff and was building my academic credentials at the same time. Suddenly I realized that it was possible to be a professional chemist, to do research and actually make a living at it."

From there, Preuss's path took a turn. She focused on obtaining a degree in chemistry and continued to work in various professors' labs between semesters. Preuss furthered her experiments in inorganic synthesis and later expanded her research to the areas of organic synthesis, thermodynamics and photochemistry.

By the time Preuss had finished her undergraduate studies, she had no fewer than seven published papers to her name – more than most PhD students tend to have on their CVs. Preuss graduated with distinction from the U of L, was awarded the Faculty of Arts & Science Gold Medal (Science) for her achievements and went on to complete a PhD in inorganic chemistry at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Waterloo.

Today, Preuss is a leading expert in the field of materials science. She has received numerous awards for her work, including the Royal Society of Canada's Alice Wilson Award, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada's UFA ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Faculty Award, and the Ontario Government's Early Research Award.

Her research is innovative and influential – the magnitude of which only a chemist can truly appreciate.

"We are attempting to make bifunctional or multifunctional materials, but our design is unique," she explains. "We are the first to actually develop thiazyl radicals as ligands in a rational way, and we have added a new class of radicals. We've taken the entire metal-radical concept a step further than it has every been taken before."

Ask her how she feels the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge prepared her for academic achievement and professional success, and Preuss's response is crystal clear.

"My education at the U of L is directly responsible for where I am today," says Preuss. "If I hadn't gone to the U of L, met professor Boeré and worked in his lab, I wouldn't have become a chemist. None of what I've done would have been accomplished. The U of L gave me the opportunity to do a lot of really significant research and be recognized for it early on. Attending the U of L definitely gave me a head start and got me going in the right direction, academically and professionally."

It might be hard to prove, but scientists may just believe in fate after all.

GET THE FACTS

· After completing her PhD in 2000, Preuss held post-doctoral positions at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Colorado and North Carolina State ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. She returned to Canada in 2002

· Her current research has implications in the areas of low-power data storage, sensors and other adaptive technologies

· In addition to her teaching and research commitments, Preuss is an avid sailor and tries to spend some time each summer on Georgian Bay (Lake Huron) with her young family. She is married to Joel and has two children, Genevive (3) and Marco (1)

This story first appeared in the October 2012 issue of the Legend. To read the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Wieden earns Distinguished Teaching Award

trevor.kenney — Thu, 19 May 2011 16:35:24 +0000

In the manner of a week, Dr. Hans-Joachim (HJ) Wieden learned he'd be receiving two teaching awards this spring – one from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and another from the students. It's safe to say his philosophy, and the subsequent delivery on that promise, has hit the mark.

"It was a good week, it kind of raised the hair on my forearms," says Wieden, a chemist by nature and professor of physical biochemistry.

"It's cool. A lot of the teaching I do does not involve formal teaching evaluations," he says. "I only instruct two classes a year and it needs to be that way. If I had a teaching load of four classes, there isn't going to be any research coming out of this lab, or I wouldn't be able to teach independent study students or help with the iGEM program."

Dr. HJ Wieden is most at home in his lab, working one-on-one with students.

It begs the question then, how does Wieden get noticed as one of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's best teachers, winning the 2010 Distinguished Teaching Award and one of three Students' Union Teaching Excellence Awards, when there are few metrics with which to measure his performance? It comes from his students, who have made a point of letting people know just how influential Wieden has been on their academic experience.

A native of Germany, Wieden learned early what manner of teaching he found most effective, well before he ever knew he'd be a professor.

"The experience I had as an undergrad taught me something," says Wieden.
His first exposure to post-secondary studies came at Heinrich-Heine ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Dusseldorf where he was thrust into an introductory chemistry class as one of 1,200 students in an 800-seat auditorium. With no opportunity for student-teacher interaction, the only way for students to succeed was if they were extremely self-motivated or exceptional learners.

"I hated that and it almost made me stop attending university," says Wieden.

He, of course, made it through, spurred on by a keen interest in biochemistry and physical chemistry.

"When I learned about that, I got excited," he says. "I liked the idea of small molecular machines doing stuff in your cells, and that we can, by retro-engineering them to learn how they are designed, help us to build molecular machines with novel functions. It's like taking a car apart and putting it back together."

Wieden is animated and excitable when he talks biochemistry, and it's a palpable enthusiasm that he brings to his students. While studying for his PhD at Witten/Herdecke ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ (Germany's first privately-funded university), he gained his first exposure to a different manner of teaching and learning.

"What I liked was the direct contact, you could see students going to labs doing hands-on stuff and doing research right away," he says. "I think those two different approaches to teaching inspired me."

When he found an opening at the U of L in the back of the magazine NATURE, he investigated the post and quickly found it suited his ideals.

"I got the job, got here and really saw the place. Everybody is friendly to each other, the size is right and I felt it was a good place where I could actually do something," he says. "In the bigger schools, you are often disconnected from the students. I have colleagues from these institutions who don't know how to get grad students because they have no teaching contact.

"The possibility to actually shape something here was a big reason I saw this as a good place to be."

He excels as an independent study supervisor and since 2007 has been involved in the highly successful iGEM program as well. In each endeavour, he relishes the opportunity to draw the best out of his students.

"I look at a class of 30 students with 30 individuals and 30 different brains," says Wieden. "There are probably 30 different ways to get into their brains and teach them something, and individualized learning allows us to do that – that's a very cool thing.

"There's always a way to connect to a topic. It could be the most awesome topic in the world but if the teacher doesn't tell it in a way that sparks you, it will never be interesting and that's what we try and do."

The awards are, to some degree, a validation, but on another level, they reflect the outcome of his process.

"It gives me a feeling that there is recognition for the time I've spent with individualized teaching in and outside of the classroom, and it shows that the students who went through the program are aware of that," says Wieden. "I've told my students that they have to give back, if you like something say it, and if you dislike something, say it."

The students have obviously spoken.

This story first appeared in the Legend. For a look at the Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

UNews - chemist

Alumna of the Year Preuss realizes destiny

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Wieden earns Distinguished Teaching Award

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