The researchers in our group carry out work in Chemistry Education Research.
The primary focus of our Chemistry Education Research (CER) group is in understanding how to better measure student
learning in chemistry courses. Once we are able to understand the limitations on the measurements we make, we can
use data from various situations (including national datasets from the ACS Exams Institute) to determine patterns
in student learning, for example, or how various interventions influence student learning. Click on the 'Research'
link above to learn more.
(August 2023) Welcome to Micke Reynders who is joining our research group in Chemistry. Great to have you on board Micke!
(August 2023) Welcome to Samantha Hirschman who is joining our research group in Human-Computer Interaction. We are excited to have you join the group Samantha.
(May 2023) Congratulations to Annabelle for her successful LAS CASTLE grant proposal on the Chatbot project.
(December 2022) Welcome to Morgan Clark who has started her studies in Chemistry Education Research after finishing her Masters work in analytical chemistry.
(August 2022) The Holme group had seven presentations at the 2022 BCCE conference at Purdue University. Thanks to all who attended these presentations.
(March 2022) Congratulations to Annabelle for passing her preliminary exam and advancing to candidacy.
(December 2021) Congratulations to Emily for passing her preliminary exam and advancing to candidacy.
(July 2021) Congratulations to Annabelle for being re-elected as the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee Chair for the National Science Policy Network!
(July 2021) Congratulations to Jack for successfully defending his PhD thesis. Way to go Jack!
(July 2021) Congratulations to Tom for being awarded the Margaret Ellen White Graduate Faculty Award.
(July 2020) Congratulations to Jiwoo for successfully defending her PhD thesis. Way to go Jiwoo!
(June 2020) Welcome to Morgan joining the group and making her way to Ames from Texas.
(May 2020) Congratulations and welcome to Emily, on completing her Masters in analytical chemistry and joining the group.
(May 2020) Congratulations and welcome to Annabelle, on completing her Masters in theoretical chemistry and joining the group.
(February 2020) Tom was quoted several times in the Chemical & Engineering News Cover article on Systems Thinking in Chemistry Education
(January 2020) Tom officially begins his duties as Editor in Chief of the Journal of Chemical Education
(July 2019) Welcome to Jason Thon, a new graduate student in the group.
(May 2019) Congratulations to Jiwoo for passing her preliminary exam and advancing to candidacy.
(April 2019) Congratulations to Jack for passing his preliminary exam and advancing to candidacy.
(March 2018) Welcome to Prof. Glen Loppnow from the University of Alberta, visiting our group while on a sabbatical style leave.
(February 2018) Welcome to Jiwoo An, a new graduate student in the group.
(April 2017) Congratulations to Tom for receiving the George C. Pimentel Award in Chemistry Education.
(March 2017) Jack recently had two publications in php[architect], a PHP programming magazine. They can be found
here and
here.
(November 2016) Congratulations to Tom for receiving the James Flack Norris Award in Chemistry Education.
(September 2015) Congratulations to Jack Polifka, who passed his MS defense in the Human-Computer Interaction program.
(August 2015) Congratulations to John Baluyut, who passed his PhD defense. Way to go Dr. Baluyut! He leaves for his
new tenure track position at Great Falls University next week!
(July 2015) Congratulations to Anna Prisicari, who passed her MS defense in the Human-Computer Interaction program.
(April 2015) Congratulations to Jessica Reed, who passed her PhD defense. Way to go Dr. Reed!
(March 2015) Congratulations to Postdoc Cindy Luxford who has accepted a tenure track position in Chemistry Education
at Texas State University
(February 2015) Congratulations to Michael verHaag, former computational student who is moving from his role in High
Performance Computing here at Iowa State to a similar (but cooler) position at Johns Hopkins.
(November 2014) Congratulations to Chamila DeSilva who has successfully defended her thesis in computational chemistry.
Way to go Chamila!
(August 2014) Welcome to Allie Brandreit Harshman - a new postdoc in the group!
(May 2014) Tom has been named the winner of a trio of teaching awards at Iowa State. One is called the
Cassling Award for Outstanding Achievement in Teaching' awarded by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Another is the Iowa State University Award for Outstanding Acheivement in Undergraduate Teaching. The final
one is another University-wide award called the 'Louis Thompson Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award'.
(April 2014) Congratulations to Kim Galyean for winning the Merck Index Award from the Chemistry Department: the
top award it presents to an undergraduate research student. Undergrads in our group have now one this award in 3
out of the last 4 years!
(April 2014) Congratulations to Jessica Reed for being named a winner of the Chemistry Department Graduate Student
Teaching award.
(November 2013) The 3rd edition of Tom's textbook, Chemistry for Engineering Students (Brown and Holme) has been
published. (Though it actually carries a 2015 copyright...)
(November 2013) A welcome, and a congratulations to a new graduate student, Jack Polifka, in the Human Computer
Interaction component of our group. Jack has also received an HCI Fellowship for the Spring 2014 semester.
Way to go Jack!
(September 2013) We have received funding from the National Science Foundation for the project, 'Electronic
Delivery of Scaffolded Visualization Tutorials and Assessment in Chemistry'
(September 2013) We have also received funding from the National Science Foundation for the project,
'Collaborative Research: Enhancing Comparative Assessment for Chemistry with or without Standardized Testing'
working with our collaborators from UMass - Amherst.
(September 2013) Former grad student Michael VerHaag has returned to Iowa State serving on the staff that operates
the new cluster on campus: click here for information
about the new computer.
(September 2013) Welcome to Jenny Brigham, our new HHMI Postoc!
(August 2013) Congratulations to Christine Thomas, an undergraduate researcher in our Computational group. She has
received the Plagens Research Scholarship for this coming fall semester.!
(August 2013) Also congratulations to Kim Galyean, an undergraduate researcher in our Chem Ed group. She too
has received the Plagens Research Scholarship for this coming fall semester. Way to go both Christine and Kim!
(May 2013) Welcome to Cindy Luxford, our new Postdoc!
(May 2013) Tom has been awarded the Letters and Science award for Undergraduate Teaching in an Introductory Course.
(April 2013) Congratulations to our postdocs, all three of whom have accepted tenure-track positions for the next
academic year: Kim Linenberger (Kennesaw State); Jeff Raker (South Florida) and Mike Slade (Evansville).
(November 2012) Congratulations to Jessica Reed - she won the 2012 L.B. Sims Outstanding Master's Thesis Award from
the University of Iowa for her Master's thesis work on hydride storage in palladium!
(September 2012) Congratulations to John Balyut and Jessica Reed - their proposal to attend the ACS
International-Domestic Student Summit (IDSS) was funded by the ACS!
(June 2012) Heather Caruthers successfully defended her PhD thesis. Congratulations Heather!
(June 2012) The most recent book review by Tom has gone up on J. Chem. Educ. ASAP.
(May 2012) The first two papers on the Anchoring Concept Content Map are out in J. Chem. Educ., and they are
highlighted by the cover of the June edition! Click here to
go to the site.
(April 2012) Congratulations to Solomon Hughes for winning the Merck Index Award from the Chemistry Department:
the top award it presents to an undergraduate research student. Two years in a row for undergraduate students
in our group winning this award!
(April 2012) Michael VerHaag successfully defended his PhD thesis. Way to go Michael!
(April 2012) Solomon Hughes accepted the offer from Colorado State University for graduate school work in Chemistry,
likely focusing on Chemistry Education Research - our first undergraduate CER student to move on to a graduate
program!
(April 2012) Congratulations to Chamila DeSilva for being named a winner of the Chemistry Department Graduate
Student Teaching award.
(March 2012) Congratulations to Chamila DeSilva for her scholarship from the Sloss Women's Center!
For information about their scholarships, click here.
(April 2011) Congratulations to Heather Caruthers for being named a winner of the Chemistry Department Graduate
Student Teaching award.
(April 2011) Congratulations to Diana Merrit for winning the Merck Index Award from the Chemistry Department:
the top award it presents to an undergraduate research student.
