Gregory Edens, Ph.D.

Professor Greg Edens joined the Division of Natural Sciences and Math in September 2013 after having worked seven years in the industry. Prior to that, he had more than seven years’ experience teaching general, analytical, and instrumental chemistry.

Dr. Edens earned his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry at Purdue University, his Master's degree in Chemical Engineering at University of Illinois, Chicago, and his Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.

Since his college freshman days, Edens has loved General Chemistry because of the breadth of topics covered. He enjoys learning new things each time through and strives to improve his teaching each year to inspire students, to give them a good foundation for upper-level science courses, and particularly to prepare them for Analytical Chemistry and Physical Chemistry, which he also teaches.

In Summer 2015 he supervised two students in a research project to determine mercury in fish. The students found that chunk light tuna has less mercury than solid white albacore, while Ahi tuna has very high levels of mercury. With the support of a NASA grant, one of the students will study the geographic distribution of mercury as implicated by levels in fish.

He enjoys listening to classical music, playing the piano; and gardening, cooking and riding bicycles with his wife. Ask him about a book that has changed his eating habits and improved his health. He enjoys reading chemistry journals, as well as textbooks about physical chemistry and thermodynamics.