Dr. Alexey Ignatchenko Research Group

                        The History of the Chemistry Department
Full time faculty at the Chemistry Department are listed chronologically by each year, and are summarized
in a short list.
For the first time the Chemistry Department offered courses in 1952 on the third floor of Kearney. Francis S. Ruth and Carl J. Claus were the first two chemistry professors at St. John Fisher. At the first commencement in 1955, seven students with a chemistry major, Richard J. Schottmiller, Robert J. Raynor, Richard A. Phillips, Adalbert L. Gramza, James A. Gaffney, Frank A. Gioseffi, and Gerard L. Carges, were awarded Bachelor degrees. An example of 1956-1957 curriculum includes 1st year general chemistry, followed by 2nd year analytical and 3rd year organic chemistry. After the initial rapid growth (seven chemistry faculty members in 1973 and 20-25 graduates) the number of chemistry graduates since 1978 has settled to 10-12 a year. The number of credit hours for B.S. in chemistry was 49 in 1962. In recent years, it is around 80 for B.S. and around 60 credits for B.A. in chemistry according to 2019-2020 catalog.
History-03
The
Chemistry club had a small number of members during most years of its history, but in 1954 it grew up to 300 members thanks to the efforts of the newly hired chemistry instructor Edward Weber according to one historical document.
Since 1959, Chemistry labs were located in the Pioch Hall and later moved into the Science Building which was constructed in 1968-1969.
Science Building May 1968 NMR_instrument
                              in 1976
Construction of the Science Building in 1968                                NMR instrument in 1976.
Throughout these years, three generations of NMR Instruments have evolved and they all looked very different before the current 400 MHz Bruker instrument has arrived in 2019.
 NMR instrument before 2019  NMR instrument since 2019
NMR instrument before 2019.    
NMR instrument since 2019.
Bob Smith with prototype
                                      apparatus for NASA
Bob Smith and graduate Mary Beth Williams with their NASA prototype.
Prof. Bob Smith was known for his research work on the analysis of water purification systems used in space vessels.
He has received an $87,000 grant from NASA.

     Bob Smith with students in
                                      1993
     Bob Smith with students in 1993.
Chemistry Faculty Photos from the past.
Aleksey A. Sirotenko Clarence Heininger David M. Teegarden 
Paul Mitacek
Edward N. Weber Andrew Turner
Leslie J. Schwartz Michael R. Walczak
Daniel E. Piccolo     Thomas A. Douglas    Walzak Schwartz Teegarden Piccolo
Chemistry Fair in Gym  Chemistry Club 1987
Research activities at the Chemistry Department have always been an important part of education since early days. In 1965, under direction of Dr. Aleksey Sirotenko, students compiled their first edition of the Department's own journal in chemistry, "Eagles of Fisher", featuring
original articles with well documented experimental procedures, results and discussions.

Fisher Ten Under 10 Honorees

 

Ten Under 10 honorees in 2016-2021

Brian Abrahamson ’07
Ashlee Bolton ’14
Dr. Craig Brackett ’06
Travis Buchello ’13
Kristen Buckley- Dauphin ’06
Emily Buss ’10
Anthony Chiaravalloti, MD ’10
Lauren Cirulli ’09
Timothy Crumley ’13
Brandon Dever ’08
Daniel Dixon ’09
Nicholas Donofrio ’10
Lisa Famiglietti ’08
Sara Beth Fisher ’07
Eric Friedman ’10
Frank Garcia ’13
Gina Godlewski ’16
Dr. Valerie Grapensteter ’13, ’17
Zachary Hilt ’14
Alexandra Hristodoulou ’17
Brad Huber ’08
Christian Jensen ’09
Lee Kern ’08
Cheol Kessler ’10
Christopher Keyes ’10
Brandon Knickerbocker ’16

Bronson Kopp ’07
Odeta Kushi ’13
Sadita Kushi ’10
Chelsey Litto ’16
Garret MacDonald ’15
Dr. Michael Maguire ’07
Scott McGlynn ’11
Miguel Melendez ’08
Kate Michaels ’08d
Dallas Miller ’07
Dr. Katherine Nesbitt ’10
Loriane Ngarambe ’14
Dr. Mark Parsons ’09
Antoinette Poole ’12
Kathleen Redmond- Roche ’07
Julia Schliff ’11
Mark Schnobrich ’09
Joseph Smith ’12
Aaron Spacher ’13
Michael Spier ’09
Chelsea Stahl ’14, ’18
Kayleigh  Terranova ’09
Tashanda Thomas ’11


2022 Ten Under 10 winners:

 Christopher (CJ) Wild, ’20

Caroline Seaberg, ’19

Dr. Yvette Conyers, ’13, ’18 (DNP)

Bethany Dreyer, ’18

Alexa Zappia, ’18

Ashely Flanagan, ’17

Anthony DiPerna, ’16

Dusty Baker, ’14

Dr. Joseph DeRaddo, ’15

Christopher Rush, ’12

2024 Ten Under 10 winners:

 Ryan Andrew ’14,
Samantha Bonelli ’14,
Kristy Donaldson Mullen ’15, ’17 (M.S.),
Alyssa Dyer ’19,
Amanda Hopkins ’21 (Ed.D.),
Brittany Lanning ’20,
Vince Marino ’15,
Brandon McCoy ’13,
Kelsey Michener ’18,
Alexander Rozaklis ’17.