Dr. Vernon R. Miller
Associate Professor of Chemistry
- Ph. D. Inorganic Chemistry, Southern Illinois University
- Teaching Areas: Inorganic, Analytical, Environmental, General Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Electronics
- Joined Roanoke College in 1976
- Office: Trexler -175; phone - 540-378-5158;
- E-mail - miller@roanoke.edu
- Mercury: A Most Interesting and Toxic Metal
- This is a PowerPoint file and requires PowerPoint or a PowerPoint viewer. A viewer is free from Microsoft. Contact me if you have questions and I will be glad to help.
Courses Taught- CHEM 111L, General Chemistry Lab
- CHEM 112L, General Chemistry Lab
- CHEM 221L, Organic Chemistry Lab
- CHEM 222L, Organic Chemistry Lab
- CHEM 331L, Physical Chemistry Lab
- CHEM 332L, Physical Chemistry Lab
- CHEM 370, Environmental Chemistry
- Current Research Projects and Interests
- My current research interests are in the areas of boron chemistry, environmental chemistry, and revising and developing new laboratory experiments. See descriptions below.
- Personal
- I have a wife (Registered Nurse), a daughter (high school teacher), and a son (computer systems analyst). My wife and I were born and raised in Ohio, but after moving around during our our post-secondary school education, settled in Virginia. My hobbies are genealogy, the outdoors, boating and water skiing, computers, and informal teaching.
- Currently I am the Editor of the "Blue Ridge Chemist", the monthly newsletter of the Virginia Blue Ridge Local Section of the American Chemical Society and Treasurer of the same Section.
Current Research Projects and Interests
- Boron Chemistry
- One of my research interests involves the interaction of boric acid with various alcohols. Much of this work is done on our 300 MHz superconducting NMR. Above, a summer research student, Anna Kostric, works on this project at our NMR.
Environmental Chemistry- This area of research interest is less developed, but has more current relevance. These projects involve analyzing various samples, using AA or GC/MS, etc. These projects involve preparing and characterizing and/or looking at the reactions of environmentally important compounds. Various students have looked at various analytes in Mason Creek.
Laboratory Experiments- Another on-going research interest of mine involves laboratory experiments for beginning students, both for science students and for non-science students. In many ways these experiments are more challenging to develop than experiments for upper level chemistry students. Past projects in this area have involved kinetics, electrochemistry, pH equilibria, and solubility product equilibria.
Current issues of the Blue Ridge Chemist
