François Amar

  • Former Dean, The Honors College (2013-2020)
  • Sabbatical 2020-21 Academic Year

Degrees

  • B.A. (summa cum laude) 1975, Chemistry , Temple University
  • M.S. 1977 & Ph.D. 1979, Chemistry, University of Chicago
  • NSF-CNRS Postdoctoral fellow, Université de Paris-Sud, Orsay, France, 1979-80
  • Postdoctoral fellow, Columbia University, New York, NY 1980-83

Research Projects

Resources

Affiliations

  • Member, Center for Research in STEM Education (RiSE Center), University of Maine
  • American Chemical Society
  • National Collegiate Honors Council
  • Fulbright Association

Courses Taught:

  • Honors 391, Introduction to Thesis Research, Spring 2020
  • Honors 309, Honors Read Tutorial, Spring 2020
  • General Chemistry, Physical Chemistry at undergraduate and graduate level
  • Courses in MST program
  • Honors Core courses

Profile

François is pursuing several initiatives that connect strongly to the mission of the Mitchell Center. The first of these is the Sustainable Food Systems Research Collaborative (SFSRC), an Honors-centered research cluster that fosters undergraduate, community-engaged research that can leverage the expertise of UMaine faculty in collaboration with gifted undergraduates to work on difficult problems that are important to community partners. He has been a co-author of several presentations/publications about the SFSRC.

Selected Publications

“The College” as an Emergent Global Form: One Experience at Starting a Trans-National College-to-College Relationship, Catelijne Coopmans, Gregory Clancey, François G. Amar, in Honors Education in Transition: Vol II. Continuity and Innovation in Honors College Curricula, Glover, Robert W. and Katherine O’Flaherty, Eds, Rowman and Littlefield, 2016.

Polymers and Cross-Linking: A CORE Experiment To Help Students Think on the Sub- microscopic Level, Mitchell R.M. Bruce, Alice E. Bruce, Shirly Avargil, Franço̧is G. Amar, Thomas M. Wemyss, and Virginia J. Flood, Journal of Chemical Education, 93(9), 1599-1605 (2016)

Leveraging the Research Capacity of the Doctoral University for Honors Education: the Research Collaborative Model, François G. Amar, Mark Haggerty, Melissa Ladenheim, Linda Silka, John Jemison, Honors in Higher Education: Proceedings from HERU Vol 1, Issue 1, 2016: online at https://journals.psu.edu/heru

Students’ Understanding of Analogy in a CORE (Chemical Observations, Representations, Experimentation) Learning Cycle, General Chemistry Experiment, Shirly Avargil, Mitchell R.M. Bruce, François G. Amar, Alice Bruce, Journal of Chemical Education 92(10), 1626-1638 (2015).

The influence of zinc(II) on thioredoxin/glutathione disulfide exchange: QM/MM studies to explore how zinc(II) accelerates exchange in higher dielectric environments, Roby Kurian, Mitchell R.M. Bruce, Alice E. Bruce, and François G. Amar, Metallomics, 7, 1265-1273 (2015).

Paying Attention to Gesture when Students Talk Chemistry: Interactional Resources for Responsive Teaching, Virginia J. Flood, François G. Amar, Ricardo Nemirovsky, Benedikt W. Harrer, Mitchell R.M. Bruce, Michael C. Wittmann, Journal of Chemical Education 92(1), 11-22 (2015).

Whispering Gallery Mode Emission Generated in Tunable Quantum Dot Doped Glycerol/Water and Ionic Liquid/Water Microdroplets Formed on a Superhydrophobic Coating, E. Nuhiji, F.G. Amar, H. Wang, N. Byrne ,T-L Nguyen, and T. Lin, Journal of Materials Chemistry 21(29),10823-10828 (2011).

Mechanism of Hydrodeoxygenation of Acrolein on a Cluster Model of MoO3, D. Moberg, T. Thibodeau, F.G. Amar, B.G. Frederick, Journal of Physical Chemistry C 114, 13782-13795 (2010).

Using the workshop model for modular, student-centered leader training, Amar, F., Stewart, B.N., Fortin, H., Bruce, M.R.M. (2009). Progressions: The Peer-Led Team Learning Project Newsletter, Volume 10, Number 3, Spring.  Online at [ http://www.pltl.org ]http://www.pltl.org.

Four Leader Training Modules for PLTL: Getting started; Group Development; Communication; Mattering and Marginality. Amar, F., Fortin, H., Bruce, M.R.M. (2009). Progressions: The Peer-Led Team Learning Project Newsletter, Volume 10, Number 3, Spring.  Online at http://www.pltl.org.

Four Faculty Guides for PLTL training modules: Getting started; Group Development; Communication; Mattering and Marginality. Amar, F., Fortin, H., Bruce, M.R.M. (2009). Progressions: The Peer-Led Team Learning Project Newsletter, Volume 10, Number 3.