Mark Vitha received his Ph.D.in analytical chemistry from the University of Minnesota in the laboratory of Professor Peter Carr, and his B.A. degree from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. He started at Drake in 1998 after teaching for one year at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. At Drake, he routinely teaches General Chemistry, Quantitative Analysis, and Instrumental Analysis (Advanced Analytical Chemistry), and periodically offersHonors Coursessuch as Characters in Science and Paths to Knowledge. He was been awarded Drake University’s Troyer Research Fellowship, been named a Windsor Professor of Science, and has received the University’sMadelyn M. Levitt Teacher of the Year Awardand the Honors Program’s Teacher of the Year Award.
His research focuses on characterizing the types and strengths of intermolecular interactions that govern chromatographic retention and solvatochromic shifts in spectroscopy. Recently, he has become interested in the application of analytical chemistry to the study of artworks.
