William F. Coleman
William "Flick" Coleman is Professor of Chemistry at Wellesley College, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1982. Prior to moving to Wellesley he was a member of the faculty at the University of New Mexico (1970-1982). He has served as Chair of the Wellesley Chemistry Department for the periods 1985-88, 1991-94 and 2004-date. He currently is serving as Acting Director of the Environmental Studies Program.
Flick Coleman is a 1966 honors graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he has also served on the Board of Trustees. He received his Ph.D. from Indiana University - Bloomington where he held NSF, NDEA and Woodrow Wilson Fellowships, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Arizona in 1970 and a Visiting Professor of Chemistry at Stanford in 1978-79 and 1988-89. During the 1994-95 and 2001-02 academic years, he was a Visiting Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
His teaching interests are in introductory, inorganic and physical chemistry, environmental studies, writing and interdisciplinary studies. At Wellesley he has taught seminars in chemical kinetics, bioinorganic chemistry, theoretical chemistry, group theory, atmospheric chemistry, photochemistry and photobiology, organometallic chemistry, the periodic table, the history of chemistry and molecular spectroscopy. He has also taught in the Writing, Environmental Studies, Cluster, INCIPIT and Technology Studies programs.
A physical-inorganic chemist, Flick Coleman's research interests, for almost forty years, were directed in areas of molecular spectroscopy and photochemistry with particular emphasis on the applications of lasers to spectroscopic phenomena in complexes of the transition and actinide elements. Recently he has decided to reinvent himself as a theoretician and has embarked on a research program involving quantum mechanical calculations on medium-sized molecules of chemical, biochemical and environmental interest. He has spent more than twenty years developing and disseminating applications of computers and the Internet in chemical education. He was a co-PI on a large NSF Grant to develop The Journal of Chemical Education Digital Library and currently edits the WebWare and Featured Molecules columns for the Journal in print and on-line. He has published more than 100 scholarly papers and presented over 200 talks at professional meetings. His countless web-based publications are used in educational institutions around the world.
Flick Coleman has received a number of teaching awards from Indiana University, the University of New Mexico and Wellesley College. In 1986 he received the national Catalyst Award in Chemical Education from the Chemical Manufacturers Association and in 1993 was awarded the John A. Timm Award in Chemical Education. In 1999 he received the Faculty Service Award from the Wellesley College Alumnae Association, 20 years after receiving a similar award at the University of New Mexico. In 1976 he received the McArthur Alumnus Award from Eckerd College. He has presented seminars at more than 150 colleges and universities and has spoken to approximately 200 high school classes around the country. He has been very active in the ACS Division of Chemical Education at the national level, having served three years as Chair of the Program Committee. He has served on the Executive Committee of that body, served on the Task Force on General Chemistry and has been a member of the ACS Council as an elected representative of the Division. He served three years as Faculty Member and/or Academic Director of the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Institute in Chemistry at Princeton University (1985, '89, '90). At both New Mexico and Wellesley he has served on a seemingly infinite number of major committees.
Away from the classroom and lab, Flick Coleman is a professional musician, performing around the Boston area in a variety of jazz and chamber groups. He is also an avid, albeit not professional quality, folk singer, and has composed a number of songs describing a variety of chemical phenomena. He is an enthusiastic squash and racquetball player, an avid reader, defender of liberal political ideas, and a die-hard Red Sox fan, something that is easier to be now than it was prior to 2004.
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Profile last updated: 2/06