CIC Award for Chemical Education

 Submit a Nomination: To nominate someone for this award, fill out the nomination form   and submit your complete package as one pdf.
Consult the Terms of Reference
View the complete list of current and past winners

The 2012 winner is:

Dietmar Kennepohl, FCIC
Athabasca University

Dietmar Kennepohl, FCIC, is professor of chemistry and associate vice-president academic at Athabasca University (AU) Canada’s Open University. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from McMaster University with a BSc Honours degree in chemistry and continued directly into his doctoral studies at the University of Alberta in main group synthetic chemistry. Before coming to Athabasca University he also did a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Guelph and was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Universität Göttingen in Germany. Most of his teaching experience has been in a distributed and online setting. He holds both university and national teaching awards. Over the years, his research interests have included chemical education as well as petroleum, main group and coordination chemistry. His research in chemical education includes online chemistry courses and concentrates on the use of innovative distance delivery methods for undergraduate laboratory work.

In 2009, he co-edited a book entitled Experiments in Green and Sustainable Chemistry published by Wiley-VCH and in 2010 his book Accessible Elements: Teaching Science Online and at a Distance (winner of the 2011 Charles A. Wedemeyer Award) was released through AU Press as an open and freely available publication.

Terms of Reference top

This award is presented as a mark of recognition to a person who has made an outstanding contribution in Canada to education at the post-secondary level in the field of chemistry or chemical engineering.

Deadline: July 2 of every year.

Sponsor: CIC Chemical Education Fund

Award: A framed scroll, $1,500 cash.

The award shall be presented at the annual Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition or Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference. The recipient will be required to present an award lecture.

Supporting letters: Supporting letters for this award might include such information as: description of special methods and procedures (models, instruments, computer programs, etc.), reorganization of course content, innovations in teaching methods and professional activities of the candidate. Details of teaching effectiveness are important, i.e. testimonials from students describing the effect of the nominee on their attitudes towards chemistry, and teaching awards that the nominee has received with the component of student evaluation described. Details of chemical education activities such as publications, lectures, curriculum development and administrative positions are also useful.

Membership in the Institute is not a prerequisite for receiving this award.

The nomination shall remain in force for three consecutive years. Nominators are responsible for keeping the record of the nominee up to date and complete.

Selection Committee:

• Past Chair of the CIC Board of Directors as non-voting Chair
• Chair of the Chemical Education Division
• Immediate Past Chair of the Chemical Education Division
• CSC and CSChE Directors, Education and Student Affairs

The award shall be presented annually unless the Committee considers that no suitable candidate has been nominated.