Archives

Bryan Nell

• Ph.D. from University of Oregon
• B.A. from Ripon College

I grew up in St. Germain, Wisconsin, and graduated from Ripon with a degree in chemistry in 2009. I earned my Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Oregon in Eugene in 2014. My dissertation research focused on the synthesis of tetraphosphine macrocycles and their corresponding coordination chemistry, mostly focused on iron. I taught general chemistry and organic chemistry at the university and classes at a community college and Oregon State University. In 2016, I started a postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Rebecca Abergel at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, preparing sulfur-based analogs of the HOPO-type molecules that are well known to capture radionuclei. I then was an assistant professor in chemistry at the University of Minnesota Morris, before returning to teach at Ripon College. I enjoy golf, woodworking projects and being outside with my wife, daughter and pups.

Patrick Willoughby

• Ph.D., University of Minnesota
• B.S., University of Northern Iowa

I am an Associate Professor of Chemistry with a particular focus on organic synthesis. I teach Organic Chemistry courses along with Catalyst 120. I enjoy mentoring research students in the development of new methods for the synthesis of pharmaceutically-relevant molecules.

Mark Kainz

• Postdoctoral scientist (plant virology), University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Postdoctoral fellow (bacteriology), University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Ph.D., Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (biochemistry, molecular and cell biology)
• M.S., Washington State University, Pullman, Washington (plant pathology)
• B.S., University of Portland, Portland, Oregon (biology)

I have been a faculty member at Ripon since 2008 and I love my job. I am interested in molecular biology and virology. My research students and I study the mechanics of how RNA is synthesized in bacteria and the factors that control how new virus particles are assembled in a virus infected cell. I teach Genetics and Microbiology every year and Molecular Biology and Virology every few years. I am also a member of the staff that teach our Introductory Biology and our Scientific Writing & Communication classes. I am a mentor for the Applied Innovation Seminar that is the capstone of our Catalyst curriculum. I teach another Catalyst class called “Bring out your dead: Infectious disease through history” that Professor Matzke from our history department and I developed together. I am part of the team that oversees the Catalyst curriculum, Ripon’s skill-based general education curriculum.

Colleen Byron

• Ph.D., analytical chemistry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• B.A., chemistry, College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, Minnesota