Jane Wissinger promoted to professor

Jane Wissinger, director of the Department of Chemistry's organic chemistry laboratory, has been promoted to professor. She teaches more than 1,100 students per year, developing the course curriculum, publishing the course manual, and training and supervising the approximately 45 teaching assistants involved. Her research group focuses on the development of laboratory experiments that model green chemistry principles and guide-inquiry pedagogy. As a senior principal investigator in the Center for Sustainable Polymers, Wissinger also works to develop experiments for the college and high school level, which share innovative technologies in renewable and degradable plastics to engage and inspire students to pursue careers in the science technology engineering and math fields. Wissinger shares her green chemistry expertise with educators and professors in workshops and seminars on a national level and is involved in the ACS-Green Chemistry Institute project to develop a Green Chemistry Education Roadmap.

William Tolman, chair of the Department of Chemistry, said: “Jane is  superb teacher and a leader in implementing green chemistry methods into the organic chemistry laboratory curriculum. Indeed, through these exceptional efforts and her laboratory development work with the Center for Sustainable Polymers, she has enhanced our overall teaching program immeasurably."

Wissinger has been working with the Department of Chemistry since 1992, first serving as an adjunct instructor for organic and general chemistry. She became the organic chemistry laboratory director in 1998, and was promoted to associate professor in 2011. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Susquehanna University, and her doctorate in organic chemistry from Northwestern University in 1987.  Her teaching accomplishments were recognized in 2014 with a Horace T. Morse-University of Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education.