Saint Michael's names new Associate Professor of Chemistry, David Heroux, Woonsocket native

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Dr. David Heroux formerly of Woonsocket joins the faculty as an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Saint Michael's College in Vermont.

COLCHESTER, VT (08/07/2013)(readMedia)-- Woonsocket native, Dr. David Heroux, formerly associate professor of chemistry at the University of Maine at Farmington, has been named associate professor of chemistry at Saint Michael's College in Vermont starting this semester. Professor Heroux spent 2012-13 on sabbatical as a visiting professor in the department of Chemistry and Geochemistry at the Colorado School of Mines under a grant from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

A dedicated researcher with extensive publications and grant funding, Dr. Heroux said "for me, it's always teaching first" which, he said, is why he found Saint Michael's College so congenial. "Saint Michael's has a very active chemistry department that attracts excellent students-I'm passionate about undergraduate research," he said.

"I also believe the liberal arts is the way to be a well-rounded scientist, a world citizen, and that is very important today," he said. "Liberal arts colleges teach the ideal of life-long learning, train you to think and to learn on your own once you graduate, which you'll be doing for the rest of your life."

Professor Heroux earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry from Manhattanville College in 1993, with a minor in Russian studies, and his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Kansas State University in 2004, with a dissertation titled "Synthesis and Characterization of Semiconductor Nanoparticles Prepared by Novel Methods." He won four top awards in chemistry from Kansas State and the American Chemical Society, and the top chemistry award at Manhattanville.

Dr. Heroux was assistant professor and then associate professor at the University of Maine, Farmington, from 2004 to 2013. He spent the summer of 2005 as a visiting professor at the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis, Novosibirsk, Russia, where he was previously an invited scientist in 2001 and 2003.

He has an extensive record of professional service organizing symposia, serving on external review and exam committees, and organizing sections of national meetings of the American Chemical Society. And he has an equally impressive record of service to the University of Maine.

Dr. Heroux mentored UMaine students yearly from 2007 to 2013 in making presentations/posters of original work at national meetings. His own record of presentations/posters reaches 22, as well as 14 research papers published in scientific journals. His most recent presentation is titled Nanostructured Metal Oxides for use in the Production of Biofuels from Biomass.

A native of Woonsocket, RI, Dr. Heroux, the son of Sue and Richard Heroux, has a lifelong love of hiking and skiing. He has hiked all the White Mountains of New Hampshire and plans to start in on the Green Mountains of Vermont. He is also an avid skier and plans to continue that love as well, along with his passion for fly fishing. Dr. Heroux also has the rare talent of doing chemical magic, having staged some 50 shows. He hopes to do more magic too.

About Saint Michael's

At Saint Michael's College www.smcvt.edu  students are challenged to do their best, find their niche, take on opportunities to grow, and immerse themselves in academic pursuits. Intellectual rigor, compassion, teamwork, caring-these characterize a Saint Michael's experience. A residential Catholic college, Saint Michael's is steeped in the social justice spirit of its founding priests, the Edmundites. Saint Michael's is located three miles from Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top 10 college towns. Headed by President John J. Neuhauser, the college has 1,900 undergraduate students and 500 graduate students. Identified by the Princeton Review, 2013 as one of the nation's Best 378 Colleges, and included in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2014, Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Goldwater, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other grants and awards. The college is one of the nation's top-100, Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2013 U.S. News & World Report rankings.

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