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I was a product of the Urbana Public Schools, Leal Elementary and Urbana Middle School, and an Honors Graduate and Senior Class Officer from Urbana High School in 1961. Two of my precollege years were spent abroad. I went to schools in England ( Wokingham near Reading) and France ( Chantilly outside of Paris). I obtained my BS degree in 1965 in Chemistry, with Honors from The University of Illinois (UIUC) writing a BS thesis, "The Generation of Carbonium Ions from Carboxylium Ions" with Prof. Peter Beak. I earned my PhD in 1968 in Organic Chemistry in 3 years from MIT located in Boston Mass. My theses, supervised by Prof. Glenn Berchtold, was on the "Photochemistry of B-Keto Sulfides." Because of the Vietnam War, and my low draft number, it was in my best interest to decline an NSF postdoctoral fellowship to do marine organic chemistry at Flordia State University an stay at MIT. I accepted a Postdoctral Position at MIT in Analytical Chemistry for 1 year working with Prof. David Hercules studying "Type II Reactions using Flash Photolysis." Since 1976 I have been teaching and doing research near Lake Michigan at The Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) on Chicago's south side next to the White Sox's Park.
l969-1975: Assistant Professor of Chemistry, The Johns Hopkins University (JHU). 1976-1986: Associate Professor of Chemistry, The Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). 1983-1992: Director of IIT's Educational Technology Center (ETC). This unit has since been renamed the Academic Resource Center (ARC). 1985-1994: Director, IIT "Summer Institutes on Computer Modelling in Mathematics and Science" for "Gifted" students in the
Chicago Public High Schools. 1986-1992: Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, Precollege, Honors, and Minority programs, IIT. Since renamed Dean of the Undergraduate College. 1990-1996: IIT Director, National Science Foundation (NSF- ERH) Midwest Comprehensive Regional Center for Minorities (CRCM], (Access 2000). 1993-2001: IIT Director, National Science Foundation (NSF- [LSAMP]) Chicago Alliance for Minority Participation (ChAMP). 1995-2001: Director, IIT's 1st , 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Annual Undergraduate Research Conference. 1998-2000: Vice President, IIT's Armour Faculty Club. President-elect 2001 (AFC).
1984-2000: Director, IIT's Summer Institutes for Science, Math, Engineering, and Technology (SMET).
Present -: Professor of Chemistry, BCPS Department, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).
l964-l965: NSF Undergraduate Fellowship, University of Illinois (Professor Ken Rinehart). l965-l966: Sun Oil Graduate Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). l966-l968: National Science Foundation (NSF) Predoctoral Fellowship, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). 1991: AMOCO Award for "Excellence in Teaching and Service." 1992: "Bauer Award for Excellence in Teaching Freshmen." This Award recognized excellence in teaching freshmen chemistry, Chem 124.
1995: "Student Organization Faculty Advisor Award." Nominated by the Union Board (UB). I have been Faculty Advisor since 1984. 
1996: Recipient of the Nationally Acclaimed "Anderson Award for Quality" for programs involving Coalitions with Business, Universities, and Government - Presented to the six 'Access 2000' Coalition PI's.
1999: Recognized by IIT's Millennium Project sponsored by TechNews as one of the 100 most influential people in IIT's last 100 years, a "Person of the Millennium." 
1995-2001: "Best Professors 2000-2001", Speakers sponsored by the West Suburban Higher Education consortium. 
2001: "Student Organization Faculty Advisor Award." Nominated by the Union Board (UB), Armour Ski Club and the Rock Climbing Club. Presented at the Stryker Dinner.
He is or has been a member of the:
American Chemical Society: Divisions (Organic, Medicinal, and Chemical information and Computer Sciences). Sigma Xi. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
Phi Lambda Upsilon Society. Chicago Council for Post Secondary Education. College Board Delegation. Council of Colleges of Arts and Letters and the American Conference of Academic Deans.
NSF, DOEd, FIPSE, and Foundation programs I am involved with:IIT Gifted Program: To help HS Students become Science, math, and Computer literate. This 4-week program attracted $300,000 over 8 years and was funded by the Chicago Public School System impacting nearly 800 high school students.
As IIT Director of "Access 2000", ( (NSF-CRCM), A six membered Chicago area coalition seeking to increase the number of underrepresented students choosing technical fields of study, $3,800,000 over 5 years, I have designed and run four precollege and/or teacher science, math, and computer programs: DASH: Discovery Approach to Science enHancement for rising HS sophomores. EID: Early IDentification for rising HS juniors. Community HAWK: A computer centered program for Chicago middle school students.Build-A-Computer: To help K-8 teachers become computer literate.
As IIT Director of "Chicago AMP" ChAMP,
(NSF-AMP), A six university coalition seeking to increase the number of underrepresented students receiving BS or BA degrees in technical fields, $4,800,000 over 5 years, I run three college level programs for science, engineering, and math (SEM) students: Undergraduate Research: In science, math, and engineering. Bridge: For IIT students in the summer before their freshmen year.
Educational Technology Center based
ETC-CSU: A distance tutoring and self-paced quizzing cooperative to enhance retention in pre-engineering programs. As IIT Director of "Chicago AMP" ChAMP, IBHE has continued ($500,000) the ChAMP funding for an extra year (2000), while ChAMP seeks an NSF 5-year renewal. As IIT Director of "Illinois LSAMP", I am happy to say that the original ChAMP group has been expanded to include downstate partners and continue the successes and SMET programs initiated by ChAMP. NSF funding of $2,500,000 is for the next 5 years (2001-06).
As Principal Investigator of the FIPSE- BMT Project ($240,000 for 3 years), I work with many of my colleagues to recruit and prepare AAS students for entry into IIT's Bachelor of Manufacturing Technology (BMT) Program. The BMT program is housed in IIT's MMAE Department.
Clinics on Proposal Writing and WWW-HomePage generation are offered through the Technical Communication and Information Design (TCID) Program. These 2 day programs average $4000 for a long weekend for 20 and can be held at IIT or on site. Send me an E-mail message for more information.
As Director of IIT's 1st ,
2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Undergraduate Research (UGR) Conference, I fund a forum for IIT's students to present their UGR research results to their peers. The 7th Annual UGR Conference is scheduled for April, 2002 in Herman Hall. See you there. With funding from the NSF, I also send AMP Scholars all over the US to present their research results.
I teach freshmen chemistry, CHEM124. My CHEM124 Web page links to the Fall schedule and homework assignments. (Left this link for historical reasons. I am not teaching CHEM124 this semester.)
As a pyrotechno expert, I am well known for the explosions I perform in class and the "Show and Blow" demonstrations I put on for visiting students and community groups and their parents.
The CHEM 124 class ends with student poster presentions. The presentations stress chemistry and the environment. Professors teaching CHEM124 recently have continued this tradition. Lets keep our air clean so we can continue to admire our planet from space as in this fantastic "JPG" picture of the earth taken from space using an infrared lense.
As an organic chemist, I also teach courses in my specialty, organic chemistry, including sophomore
CHEM237 and
CHEM239. My CHEM237 fall 2000 Web page has the syllabus and class schedule for this class as well as homework assignments. I also teach the advanced mechanism and syntheses courses, CHEM455 and CHEM530 which are often on IIT/V. This year (2001) chem530 pioneered a web-based format.
Union Board: Leaders in student activity programming. I have been the faculty advisor to UB since 1984 attending most of the Tuesday programming meetings and nearly all of the regional NACA conferences. Here is the UB 2000: Group Photo "The Gang".
As an outdoor person and Advisor to the IIT Outdoor Club, I have created Pages of local (1 hr.) and distant (3hr.) places, including maps and photos. If you use these materials to plan a trip, let me know how it went. Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources has a list of parks close to Chicago. Outdoor events and trips are planned by the UB Outdoor programmers.
The
Outdoor Club has plans for another hike at
Starved Rock State Park and a spring canoeing trip on the Kankakee River. The fall canoe trip will be on the Wisconsin River putting in at Sauk City and doing the one day trip to Arena. The 2 day trip to Spring Green involves camping on a sandbar. I have led 5 student trips down river.
The IIT Skydiving Club invites Faculty and students to take the leap with them at Sky Dive Chicago. Free falling from 13,000ft at 120 miles/hour will give you a new view on life?? Your first jumps will be tandem so don't worry, be happy. Many at IIT have now made the jump.
The IIT Rock Climbing Club Sponsors events for
students and
faculty at the Old Town "Fitplex" Gym. We will repel down the "3 story shear" cliffs at Missisippi Palisades State Park after a canoe trip on the Mississippi River leaving from Miller's Landing. The club brings a "portable wall" to to campus to test their skills.
The IIT Armour Ski Club just got back from Devil's Head and Cascade Mountain ski areas, both north of Madison, Wisconsin. Previous Spring Break trips were to Vail and Beaver Creek in Colorado. What a great 15 hr. train trip to Denver. We partied all nite!. This year we went to Boyne Highland and Nobs Nob in Michigan for a long weekend.
IIT went 20 years without a yearbook but in the last several years that has changed. As Faculty Advisor to "The Integral" I have provided many of photos related to student activities for the first (recent memory) issue on the Class of 99. This year's editor is gathering materials to meet the early spring publishing deadlines for 2001.
IIT's past has been documented by its student newspaper, Technology News (TechNews). Articles are about student accomplishments, faculty, research, and facilities. TechNews produced IIT's Millennium Project. The TechNews' Governing Board is proud of the papers continuing efforts.
The Photo Club meets on the web as a "Virtual" group to learn about photography and the equipment (I love my Nikon N-70) needed to take great photos such as those sold to the Suntimes, IIT's Student Handbook photos, students' activies photos, Admission Book pictures, or just great outdoor photos.
For the last six years, I have spent long, sunny weeks as an IIT A-Team Faculty member recruiting in
Puerto Rico. It is a beautiful island. If you are not familiar with the area, checkout my "Nationally aclaimed" Puerto Rico Journey web page which I have posted for the benefit of IIT's Puerto Rican students. I have returned to the Island every year since 1986. This year I spent most of my time SCUBA diving the walls off 6 miles south of La Parguara on the Islans SE coast..
I enjoy other interests, often with my kids. I am happy to share some of them with you.
Prof. Peter Y. Johnson
can be reached at:
Tel: 312-567-3440
Illinois Institute of Technology, Department of BCPS
My office is in Rm 298 Life Sciences Building. See the IIT map and virtural tour..
