Chemistry & Education Software
I am a PhD chemist who has been building chemistry education software for over twenty years, from classroom assessment tools to ChemWhiz.
The through-line
I earned a PhD in inorganic chemistry from Georgetown University in 2001, then spent the early 2000s writing the core response-analysis and feedback engine for a web-based learning system as a postdoctoral programmer. As a chemistry professor and lab coordinator at Eastern Kentucky University, I built a series of teaching tools, including an early version of ChemWhiz, a template-based assessment program for general chemistry.
The idea behind ChemWhiz goes back more than twenty years: software that could ask a student to enter a real chemistry answer, a balanced reaction with states and charges, an electron configuration, an oxidation state, and actually analyze and grade it, rather than reduce everything to multiple choice. I did not have the resources to fully build it then. In 2010 I left academia for software engineering, but I kept the idea and the domain.
Today it is live at chemwhiz.com. ChemWhiz grades open chemistry responses the way a chemist would, checking whether mass and charge are conserved, whether the states are right, and whether the answer came from sound reasoning, across balanced equations, electron configurations, oxidation states, nuclide symbols, and coordination-complex names.
ChemWhiz, today
A general-chemistry web app for students and educators: free study guides and chemistry tools, with graded practice that checks the chemistry itself. Built by a chemistry PhD, using IUPAC conventions throughout.
Visit ChemWhiz →Selected publications
Two decades of writing on chemistry education, chemistry software, and inorganic chemistry. Links go to the freely available originals; journal articles behind a paywall are cited without a link.
IUPAC Chemistry International
Chemistry education
- “Teaching chemistry with a tablet PC and OneNote 2007,” Journal of Chemical Education 87, 2010, 47–48.
- “Software Development for Open-Lab Management,” Journal of Chemical Education 86, 2009, 1270.
- “Improving Chemistry Education by Offering Salient Technology Training to Pre-service Teachers,” Journal of Chemical Education 86, 2009, 1060–1062.
- “Saving energy in the chemistry teaching process and improving student learning,” Journal of College Science Teaching 76 (6), 2009, 12–13.
- Godbey, Otieno & Tofan, “Open Laboratories in College Science,” in The Handbook of the NSTA, NSTA Press, 2006, Ch. 9, 87–95.
Digital libraries & scientific computing
- C. Tofan & D. Tofan, “A low cost, low memory-footprint, SQL and servlet-based solution for searching archived images and documents in digital collections,” D-Lib Magazine 15 (11/12), 2009. Read →
- “Drawing chemical equipment with Adobe Illustrator,” Parts I–III, Computing in Science & Engineering 10–11, 2008–2009.
Peer-reviewed chemistry research
- Tofan & Earley, “Molecular structure of seven-coordinate ethylenediamine-triacetato titanium(III) and titanium(IV) complexes,” Inorganica Chimica Acta 319, 2001, 63–66.
- Earley, Tofan & Amadei, “Reduction of Perchlorate Ion by Titanous Ions in Ethanolic Solution,” in Perchlorate in the Environment, Plenum Press, 2000, Ch. 9, 89–98.
Books
- Computer Technology for Chemical Educators, 1st ed., 2010.
- General Chemistry Workbook (Beryllium Edition), 2010.
- General Chemistry Lab Manual (Hydrogen Edition), 2008.
Background
PhD and MS in inorganic chemistry, Georgetown University, plus additional chemistry degrees. Chemistry professor and lab coordinator (2004–2010) before moving into software engineering. I now build across the chemistry education and web stack, with ChemWhiz as the through-line back to where I started.
More on the software side of my work is on the main portfolio, and my full background is on LinkedIn.