Chemistry Home
Faculty
Ronald Brisbois
Paul Fischer (On sabbatical, 2008-2009)
Rebecca Hoye (Department Chair)
Keith Kuwata
Kathleen Parson
Kathryn Splan
Susan Green
Thomas Varberg
Staff Barbara Ekeberg
Heather McCollor
Amy Rice
Robert Rossi
Emeritus Faculty Truman Schwartz
Emil Slowinski
Wayne Wolsey
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Faculty and Staff
Keith Kuwata
Associate Professor of Chemistry
B.A., Harvey Mudd College, 1991
Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, 1998
Keith
Kuwata is a physical and analytical chemist with a background in laser
spectroscopy and atmospheric chemistry. Prof. Kuwata, who started at
Macalester in Fall 2000, teaches courses in general, analytical, and
physical chemistry. His research involves using computer simulations to
determine the mechanisms of oxidation reactions in the troposphere. He
also has collaborated with a number of experimentalists to predict the
properties of a variety of organic and transition metal systems.
Students in his laboratory use both quantum mechanics and statistical
rate theory for these studies, which are supported by grants from the
American Chemical Society and the National Science Foundation. Until moving to Macalester, Prof. Kuwata lived in Southern California.
As an undergraduate, he studied chemistry at Harvey Mudd College, and
also read some Spanish literature at Harvey Mudd’s sister school, Pomona
College. As a graduate student at Caltech, he probed the structure of
ionic clusters using time-of-flight mass spectrometry and infrared laser
spectroscopy. These charged clusters mimicked polar statrosopheric
clouds, which play a critical role in ozone depletion over the
Antarctic. As a postdoctoral scholar, he learned to use quantum
chemistry to describe organic reactions, and also served as a lecturer
for general chemistry, teaching classes of up to 350 people (when
everyone showed up.)
Prof.
Kuwata received a Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award in 2006 from the
Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. This foundation supports a
variety of programs to advance the study of chemistry at colleges and
universities. The Henry Dreyfus Award recognizes chemists at primarily
undergraduate institutions for excellence in teaching and research done
in collaboration with students.
He is married to Alexa, who is a registered nurse at St. Joseph's
Hospital in Saint Paul. They have one daughter, Margaret, who was born
in October 2004.
Homepage: http://www.macalester.edu/~kuwata
Email: kuwata@macalester.edu
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