Dr. Graham Peaslee has been presented the 36th annual "Hope Outstanding Professor Educator (H.O.P.E.) award by the 2000 Hope College graduating class.
Peaslee, an assistant professor of chemistry and of environmental science at Hope, was honored during the college's annual Honors Convocation, held in Dimnent Memorial Chapel on Thursday, April 27, at 7 p.m. The award, first given in 1965, is presented by the graduating class to the professor who they feel epitomizes the best qualities of the Hope College educator.
Peaslee has been a member of the Hope faculty since 1993. He began his time at Hope as a National Science Foundation post-doctoral fellow and visiting assistant professor, was appointed assistant professor of chemistry in 1994 and was appointed assistant professor of environmental science in 1996.
He teaches courses including "Contemporary Chemistry," "General Chemistry I and II," "Chemistry for Elementary Education Majors," "Physical Chemistry," "Chemical Instrumentation," "Earth Environmental Systems I and II," "Advanced Environmental Seminar," "Environmental Geochemistry," and "The Atmosphere and Environmental Change." He also teaches laboratories in General Chemistry and Physical Chemistry, in addition to supervising students engaged in both chemistry research and physics research.
Peaslee has had approximately 100 refereed publications since 1983, including seven with 21 Hope undergraduate co-authors. His work at the college has been supported through a variety of external grants, including from the National Science Foundation for his research in heavy ion reactions.
He is or has been involved with a variety of national committees and organizations. He works with the ChemLinks consortium on modules to be used in general chemistry programs nationally, He is a member of the Users Executive Committee of the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, which is an NSF National Laboratory located at Michigan State University, and has served on national committees for Sigma Xi and the Division of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology of the American Chemical Society.
Prior to joining the Hope faculty, Peaslee was a post-doctoral fellow at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at MSU. He was also a post-doctoral fellow in the Nuclear Science Division at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.
He completed his bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1981 at Princeton University, and his doctorate in general physics in 1987 at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
His wife, Dr. Catherine Mader, is an associate professor of physics at Hope.