Hannah Sevian is an Associate Professor in the Curriculum & Instruction and Chemistry Departments at UMass Boston. She is also the Associate Director of the Center of Science and Mathematics in Context. She earned a Ph.D. in 1992 in physical chemistry from the University of Wisconsin Madison, M.Phil. and M.S. degrees in chemical physics from Columbia University, and a B.S. in chemical engineering and B.A. in chemistry from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her training also includes post-doctoral work in theoretical polymer chemistry at Dartmouth College, seven years of teaching chemistry and physics in urban and rural schools, and experimental materials science research while working as a visiting scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been on the faculty at UMass Boston since 2001. <curriculum vitae>

Dr. Marilyne Stains is a Post-doctoral Research Associate in Chemistry. She earned her Ph.D. in chemical education from the University of Arizona in 2007. In her thesis work she explored how students' patterns of reasoning in chemistry evolve with increasing expertise in the field. Three publications of the results of these studies (linked following) were published in JRST, IJSE (+erratum), and JCE. While pursuing her Ph.D., she also taught general chemistry courses at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona. Prior to her Ph.D. she completed her Master's degree in quantum chemistry at the Universite de Toulouse (France) in 2002. She is currently working with the Boston Science Partnership articulation team study on understanding the development of students' conceptualizations of scientific models. She is also working on research projects studying the effects of chemistry demonstrations on students' conceptual understanding, and she is conducting reliability tests on a survey designed to measure students' critical thinking abilities in science (on this project she is collaborating with Prof. Brian White of the Biology department at UMass Boston). <StainsCV.pdf>

 Dr. Shiqi Hao is a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the Center of Science and Math in Context. He received his B.A. in English Language and Literature from Hebei University in China in 1982. He obtained an M.S.E degree in secondary education from the College of Staten Island, CUNY in 1988. He earned his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Research from the University of South Carolina in 2005. He is currently working on the STEM pipeline research project. He presented his research most recently at AERA. Shiqi has just accepted a position as a psychometrician and statistician at the Michigan State Department of Education. He will begin there on May 1.

Dr. Soma Chattopadhyay is a Post-doctoral Research Associate in Chemistry. She taught physical chemistry at UMass Boston in Fall, 2006. She earned her PhD. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2006. Her thesis research involved fabrication of porous light-emitting silicon, spectroscopy and surface analytical characterization, and application of the material in chemical sensing. Prior to that, she completed her undergraduate education in India, earning a B.Tech. in chemical technology and a B.Sc. in chemistry from Calcutta University. She is currently working on ruthenium light emitting thin films projects and is also seeking a position as a research chemist either in industry or academia.

Kristen Cacciatore began her Ph.D. work in Green Chemistry in 2005. As of September, 2007, she is a chemistry teacher at East Boston High School in Boston while she continues her studies. Prior to beginning her doctoral studies, she taught chemistry at Dedham High School for five years. She earned her M.Ed. in teacher education at UMass Boston in 2004, and a B.S. in biology from UMass Boston in 1999. She is currently working on the chemistry lab studies and the development of green inquiry labs. She was also a contributing author to Active Chemistry. She has co-authored several papers (see Publications) and has presented about her research at the Gordon Research Conference on Chemistry Education Research & Practice, the American Chemical Society, the AP Equity Conference, the national conference of the National Science Teachers Association, and the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education. In addition, she leads the Boston Science Partnership's AP Chemistry Saturday labs for Boston Public Schools students during the year at UMass Boston. She was honored with the Amgen Award for Science Teaching Excellence in 2008.

Tirzah Deering is an M.Ed. Candidate seeking licensure in middle school science & math teacher education. She earned a B.A. in psychology, with a minor in educational studies, from Haverford College in 2004 and also spent considerable time assisting and teaching in the Philadelphia Public Schools. She is currently working on the science teacher content knowledge study. She is also a 7th grade math teacher at Boston Latin Academy. She presented about her research in January 2008 at the Knowledge Management and Dissemination Conference as part of the NSF Math Science Partnership Learning Network Conference.
 

Laura Kibuuka is a senior majoring in biology at UMass Boston. She is originally from Uganda. She is in the university honors program and is currently carrying out her honors thesis work on the ruthenium light emitting diode project, which she has been working on in this group for three years. Laura intends to go to medical school after she finishes her B.S. degree. Laura recently presented a poster about her research at the American Chemical Society meeting in Philadelphia. <Link to abstract>

Veneta Slavova is a junior majoring in biochemistry at UMass Boston. She is originally from Bulgaria. She has been working on the ruthenium thin films projects with Dr. Chattopadhyay for two years. Veneta intends to pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry after she graduates. This summer, she will be doing a Research Experience for Undergraduates program at the University of Pittsburgh.

Marta Escriu-Sune is a sophomore majoring in biology at UMass Boston. She is originally from Spain. She is in the university honors program and is currently carrying out her honors thesis work within the development of conceptualization of scientific models project with Dr. Stains. Marta intends to go to medical school after she finishes her B.S. degree.