Pienta named editor of the Journal of Chemical Education

Norbert Pienta, associate professor and general chemistry coordinator in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Department of Chemistry, has been named editor of the Journal of Chemical Education.

The journal is published by the Division of Chemical Education, Inc., part of the American Chemical Society. With more than 160,000 members, the nonprofit American Chemical Society is the world's largest scientific society and one of the world's leading sources of authoritative scientific information.

Pienta, who also serves as director of the UI Center for Teaching, is the recipient of a 2006-07 Collegiate Teaching Award, the top teaching award given by each UI college. He teaches Technology and Society, Principles of Chemistry, organic chemistry introductory courses, and the graduate student orientation class on teaching and pedagogy skills.

He received his doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1978 and joined the UI faculty in 1999. His current research interests include treating the teaching and learning of chemistry as an area of study and investigation.