Service and Outreach

Chair, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Northern Illinois University; DeKalb, IL July 2016- June 2023

The accomplishments of faculty, staff, and students in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Northern Illinois University during Wheeler’s seven years as Department Chair (2016-2023) demonstrate his leadership abilities and commitment to accessibility, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Despite more than two years without a state budget, followed by a global pandemic, their accomplishments include:

• Increased annual R&D expenditures almost 7-fold, from $407,000 (2016) to $2.789 million (2022) without increasing the number of faculty members.
• Increased the average annual number of publications from approximately 35 to more than 60.
• Helped secure more than $25,000 per year in donations to support undergraduate research and two bequests totaling $440,000.
• Hired the first woman to earn tenure in the department in more than 25 years.
• Prof. Wheeler served as primary author, principal investigator, and lead administrator of a $1,000,000 grant and a and a $1,999,999 renewal from the NSF to provide support for more than 100 socioeconomically challenged STEM majors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering.
• Upgraded major departmental instrumentation for the first time in 10 years by securing two NSF/MRI grants to purchase a new QToF mass spectrometer and a new 500 MHz NMR spectrometer.
• Invested more than $250,000 to upgrade instrumentation in teaching labs.
  • Computerized data collection and analysis in General Chemistry labs.
  • For the first time in 30 years, revised General Chemistry labs and re-wrote the laboratory manual.
• Started the Graduate Student Advisory Safety Committee, which won two national awards for creativity (2018 and 2019) from the CSHEMA (Campus Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Association).

Chair, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Duquesne University; Pittsburgh, PA; July 2010- June 2016

Under Prof. Wheeler’s leadership, the many dedicated faculty, staff, students, and senior administrators, accomplished the following:

• Increased annual research expenditures by 22%, from $3.7M to more than $4.5M, accounting for 29% of Duquesne’s research expenditures in 2016.
• Although formally forbidden from external fundraising, Wheeler established a $50,000 endowed fund for student travel.
• Three faculty members were named American Chemical Society Fellows, and two faculty members were named Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry (all firsts for Duquesne).
• Formalized student award nomination procedure and had three students named Duquesne’s first Goldwater Scholars; two alumnae awarded Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowships; six alumni awarded NSF Research Fellowships (all firsts for Duquesne).
• Had five faculty colleagues promoted, two tenured, and three hired as department chairs.
• Reinvigorated undergraduate recruiting by initiating and coordinating the move of the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Sciences Regional Symposium to Duquesne. The symposium brings ca. 800 middle- and high-school students to Duquesne’s campus every year.