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Biographical Sketch of Professor Sunhee Choi
2005
Vermont Professor of the Year Choi
nabs VT Professor of the Year
Choi
Fuses Chemistry & Humanity Exeter
Cum Laude Induction Speech
Middlebury Magazine, Fall 1999 Dr. Sunhee Choi is Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Middlebury College. She is a native Korean. Dr. Choi was awarded the Bachelor of Arts degree at Seoul National University in 1973 and went on to receive M.S. in Physical Chemistry at Korean Advanced Institute of Science in 1975 in the laboratory of Professor Musik Jhon. She came to the U.S. to earn her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at Princeton University in 1982 in the laboratory of Professor Thomas G. Spiro. After her Ph.D. she became an industrial chemist at Colgate-Palmolive Company where she was awarded the Colgate Presidential Award for Technical Excellence and obtained a U.S. Patent (U.S. Patent 4,725,377) for cold water detergency. In the fall of 1987, she joined the faculty at Middlebury, teaching General Chemistry II (CHEM 0104), Advanced General Chemistry (CHEM 0107), Physical Chemistry (CHEM 0351, CHEM 0352, CHEM 0353, CHEM 0452), and Instrumental Analysis Laboratory (CHEM 0311, CHEM 0312) courses. She has also taught non-majors' courses such as Food Chemistry and Biographies (Beethoven, Chagall and Marie Curie) of the Imaginative. Dr. Choi is active in research in metals in biological system with many of her undergraduate colleagues. She maintains an active externally-funded (Research Corp, ACS, NIH/AREA, and NSF/RUI; total ~$600,000 ) research program involving undergraduates in the area of mechanism of platinum anticancer drugs. She has mentored about 42 students and published 12 papers in peer-reviewed journals with undergraduate co-authors. Most of her students went on to graduate school or medical school. She presents her research at international conferences. At the 8th International Symposium on Platinum and other metal coordination compounds in Cancer Chemotherapy, Oxford, UK, 1999, her poster was selected to be one of the best eight posters out of 100 posters. At the 10th International Conference on Bio-Inorganic Chemistry, Florence, Italy, 2001, her poster was selected to be one of the best three posters out of 500 posters. In each case, her poster was the only one of the recognized posters to originate from an undergraduate institution. Recently (Nov. 17, 2005) she was awarded Vermont Professor of the Year given by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Sunhee and her husband, Jim Larrabee, a chemistry professor, have a daughter, Yuna, and a son, Yuri. They share passion for chemistry, daily walking, hiking, classical music, gardening, cooking and entertaining. |
