Renee L. falconer

 

teaching associate professor

BS - Grove City College
PhD – University of South Carolina

RESEARCH interests

My research interests center around the environmental chemistry of organic pollutants and their transport and fate in the environment.  Understanding the movement, distribution and degradation of these compounds in the environment is essential for determining their long-term effects.  Determining pathways of exposure for humans is necessary to control adverse health effects.  By analyzing various media (e.g. air, water, soil, food, tissues, indoor environments, children’s toys) for these pollutants, I hope to better understand how human’s actions affect their health and the health of the environment.

My teaching interests revolve around improving the general chemistry experience and especially in creating new lab experiences for general chemistry students to reflect the changes in our knowledge of chemistry and advances in technology. I am interested in showing all students, no matter their field of interest, how chemistry is central to the world of science.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Ulrich, E.; Falconer, R. 2011. “Chiral chlordane components in environmental matrices.” in Chiral Pesticides: Stereoselectivity and its Consequences, ACS books, In Press.

MacNeil, J.; Falconer, R. 2010.  When Learning the Hard Way Makes Learning Easy: Building Better Lab Note-Taking Skills.  J. Chem. Ed., 87(7), 703-704.

Meighan, M.; MacNeil, J.; Falconer R.  2008.  Determining the solubility product of Fe(OH)3: an equilibrium study with environmental significance.  J. Chem. Ed., 85, 254-255.

Bidleman, T.F.; Leone, A.D.; Falconer, R.L.; Harner, T.; Jantunen, L.M.M.; Wiberg, K.; Helm, P.A.; Diamond, M.L.; Loo, B.  “Air-Soil and Air-Water Exchange of Chiral Pesticides” in Pesticide Science: Environmental Fate and Effects.  H. Yamamota & J. Coats, Eds., American Chemical Society Symposium Series, ACS, 2003.

Leone A.D.; Amato S.J.; Falconer R.L. 2001. Emission of chiral organochlorine pesticides from agricultural soils in the cornbelt region of the U.S.  Environ. Sci. Technol., 35, 4592-4596.

Falconer R.L.; Harner T.J.  2000. Comparison of the octanol-air partition coefficient and liquid-phase vapor pressure as descriptors for particle/gas partitioning using laboratory and field data for PCBs and PCNs.  Atmos. Environ., 34, 4043-4046.