It’s A Chemical World

Sophia Vash is a current high school senior at Hamden Hall Country Day School (HHCDS), USA. She has worked in Dr Gasparro’s photobiology lab for three years on various experiments in addition to this book. Aside from chemistry, she enjoys partaking in research on ovarian and breast cancer.

Frank Gasparro earned his BS in chemistry from Villanova University, USA (1966), and his PhD in Physical Chemistry from Princeton, USA (1971). After 10 years of teaching at Wellesley, Princeton, and Colgate in the 1970s, he joined the research staff at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. In 1986 he was recruited for a research staff position at Yale, USA where he served as the director of the photobiology lab until 2000. In 2000 he changed careers when he accepted a high school chemistry teaching position, first at Westhill HS in Stamford and then Cheshire HS (2001-2004). Since 2004 he has been teaching at Hamden Hall Country Day School where he pioneered the involvement of students in independent research projects.

Dan Zibello earned his BS in chemical engineering at the University of Connecticut and his MS at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA. He spent several years at Esso Research and Engineering, Enjay Labs, before joining the Hamden Hall faculty to teach Chemistry at the introductory and advanced placement levels. In his 34 years at HHCDS, Mr Z mostly taught the discovery method of learning, stressing lab experience and lecture demonstrations.