Teachers

Under construction.

Module Development and Workshop Instructors
	Dr. Shane Ardo obtained his B.S. in mathematics from Towson University in 1999, M.S. in nutrition from the University of Maryland in 2005, and Ph.D. in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in 2010. Shane also previously worked as a community college instructor and high school teacher. He is currently a postdoctoral scholar, under the supervision of Prof. Nathan S. Lewis, investigating microscale device integration for unassisted solar fuel forming systems.
	Michael G. Walter earned a B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of Dayton in 2001 and, while there, worked on conductive polymer syntheses at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. He completed an M.S. in 2004 and Ph.D. in 2008 at Portland State University and joined the Lewis group at Caltech in 2008 as an NSF-ACCF postdoctoral fellow (2009 - 2011). Dr. Walter has been studying the electrical characteristics of inorganic semiconductors in contact with conductive polymers. He is currently assistant professor in the Chemistry Department at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. His research interests include molecular semiconductors for solar energy conversion, porphyrin macrocycles for optoelectronic applications, and catalyst materials for photoelectrolysis.
	Dr. Qixi Mi was born in Changsha, China in 1983. He obtained his B.S. at Peking University in 2003 and Ph.D. at Northwestern University in 2009. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow of the NSF Center for Chemical Innovation (CCI Solar) at Caltech, working on solar water oxidation using metal oxide photoanodes, under the supervision of Profs. Nathan S. Lewis and Harry B. Gray.
	Gurupreet Khalsa earned BS and MS degrees in materials engineering from UCLA. He has been a physics and chemistry educator for over 30 years, both at schools in India and, for the last 20 years, in the Pasadena Unified School District. At John Muir High School in Pasadena he served as science department chair and was a member of a district-wide science leadership team. He has been involved in the Caltech Precollege Science Initiative (CAPSI), collaborating with scientists and other educators to develop inquiry-based units, as well as an award-winning integrated chemistry-physics course. He currently teaches at Aveson Charter School.
	Leslie O'Leary obtained her B.S. from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities in 2007. Leslie is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at Caltech with Prof. Nathan S. Lewis and is a Link Energy Fellow. She studies interfacial science relevant to solar energy conversion. Leslie has also been involved with the CCI outreach program, SHArK, for the past 2.5 years.
	Dr. Robert Coridan received BS degrees in Physics and Computer Science from the Ohio State University in 2002, and a PhD degree in Physics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Nate Lewis in the Chemistry Department at Caltech. His research interests include novel semiconductor configurations and soft material self-assembly strategies for solar fuel devices.
High School Outreach Coordinator
	Carolyn Patterson is a teacher and an advocate for solar / renewable energy. She started an Environmental Club at South Pasadena Middle School, where she found inspiration in her students' excitement and willingness to rethink, reduce, reuse and recycle. At Caltech's Center for Chemical Innovation, she organizes workshops and meetings to unite the amazing scientists at Caltech with eager teachers and students. Working with this team of talented young scientists is thrilling! [Her husband is another talented scientist at Caltech, Paul H. Patterson, a neurobiologist.]