Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Cornell College

The Department of Chemistry at Cornell College is seeking an organic chemist for a two-year Visiting Assistant Professor position beginning in August 2024.  Applicants must have an earned doctorate in chemistry or a closely related field by September 2024. The successful candidate may be considered for a future tenure-track position.  The teaching load is six courses per year, with primary responsibilities in organic chemistry, additional responsibilities in general chemistry, and potentially an upper-level course in the second year.

The department seeks individuals committed to excellence and innovation in undergraduate education who will provide extensive mentoring to our diverse students. The candidate will have the opportunity to contribute to the department’s strong student-faculty research program, including participation in our 8-week Cornell Summer Research Institute (https://www.cornellcollege.edu/research/). The College strongly supports STEM education and routinely provides internal funding to facilitate student-faculty research. The Chemistry department is located in the recently-built Russell Science Center, which houses a variety of instrumentation to support coursework and research projects, including several types of spectrometers (UV-vis, fluorescence, atomic absorption, ICP, and a 400-MHz NMR with autosampler), chromatography equipment (HPLC, GCMS, FPLC, and flash), and an atomic force microscope.

About Cornell College

Cornell College is a national liberal arts college committed to excellence in teaching and the creation of a welcoming community in which all individuals are respected and included. Our innovative curriculum includes a focus on the essential abilities of writing, quantitative reasoning, and intercultural literacy as well as experiential learning. Cornell’s One Course At A Time academic calendar is divided into eight 3½-week blocks in which students take and faculty teach a single course. This one-at-a-time approach fosters strong student engagement and close faculty-student relationships while allowing faculty freedom to design and carry out their classes, on campus or off.

Because Cornell College values diversity and strives to create a welcoming community in which all individuals are respected and included, the entire campus community engages in dialogue around issues of difference, identity, and ideology. The college is committed to fostering a faculty and staff community that reflects our diverse student body. We encourage applications from candidates who share our vision for a campus that embraces differing backgrounds, viewpoints, and identities and who will excel at teaching and mentoring a broadly diverse student body.  (See our diversity statement.)

All Cornell faculty are expected to participate in service to their department and to the college and to facilitate their department's support of the college's Ingenuity core curriculum. The college encourages interdisciplinary interests among its faculty and the development of teaching strategies that capitalize on our unique academic calendar. Our academic calendar allows us the freedom to take students off-campus without impinging on other course commitments. In addition, class size is limited to 25 students, and upper-level courses are often smaller. Full-time faculty teaching load is 6 block courses during the academic year, with the other 2 blocks reserved for ongoing research projects, course preparations, or travel to academic meetings.

Founded in 1853, Cornell College has a distinctive campus community that reflects our ongoing pursuit of our core values and continuing tradition of shared governance.  Always a coeducational institution, we were the first college west of the Mississippi to graduate both men and women and the first college in the country to afford a female faculty member the same title and pay as her male colleagues. Academic immersion, real-world experience requirements through Ingenuity in Action, and unparalleled flexibility attract an ambitious student body from around the world. Seventy percent of our students are from outside Iowa, representing 44 states and 13 foreign countries. Students of color comprise one-fifth of the student body.

Cornell's picturesque hilltop campus contains a mix of historic and modern facilities. Mount Vernon, Iowa, is a flourishing community with a vibrant arts scene, recognized by Frommer's as one of "America's Coolest Small Towns" and located in the heart of the Iowa City-Cedar Rapids technology corridor.

Interested applicants should submit the following materials through Cornell College’s online application system:

• A letter of application/cover letter, which includes a description of any experience working with individuals from historically marginalized or underserved groups.
• Current Curriculum Vitae
• Graduate transcript(s) (may be unofficial)
• Teaching statement, describing teaching interests, experience, and philosophy, including examples of inclusive pedagogy
• Names and contact information for a minimum of three references. Formal letters may be requested at a later date. 

Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.

For more information about the department, please visit the departmental website:  https://www.cornellcollege.edu/chemistry/index.shtml.

Any questions can be directed to Cindy Strong, Professor of Chemistry, at cstrong@cornellcollege.edu.

Cornell is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from underrepresented groups. Cornell complies with Iowa's Smoke-free Air Act. Cornell utilizes E-Verify and requires the satisfactory completion of a background check.