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Jane Wissinger

Jane Wissinger

Professor Emerita Organic Chemistry and Laboratory Director

she/her/hers

University of Minnesota

Bio

Jane Wissinger received her B.A. from Susquehanna University, M.S. from Georgia Institute of Technology and Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Northwestern University. She was a research scientist at Rohm & Haas Co. for five years before beginning her academic career in 1992 at the University of Minnesota. In 1998, Wissinger was hired as the Organic Chemistry Laboratory Director and continued to instruct organic chemistry lecture courses, as well as an upper division Green Chemistry course. Wissinger maintained an active research program focused on the development of curriculum materials for the college and high school levels that exemplify modern green chemistry methodology, advances in sustainable polymers, guided-inquiry pedagogy, systems thinking, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Wissinger was a Senior Principle Investigator in the NSF Center for Sustainable Polymers and passionate about educating students about the need and opportunities for designing better plastics. She is active in promoting green/sustainable chemistry locally and on a national and international level through workshops, publications, and as a conference symposia organizer. Her efforts were recognized with a U of MN Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor award (2014), an ACS-CEI Award for Incorporation of Sustainability in Chemistry Education (2018), and ACS Fellow award (2023) and the ACS GCI Career Achievement in Green Chemistry award (2024). Wissinger serves on the ACS Committee on Environment and Sustainability and the IUPAC Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development.

About

Languages

  1. English

Keywords Tags/Expertise

  1. Systems Thinking
  2. Sustainable Chemistry
  3. Green Chemistry
  4. Education

Ongoing Projects

Research website: https://sites.google.com/umn.edu/wissingerresearchgroup/home

 

Systems thinking in chemistry for sustainability: toward 2030 and beyond (STCS 2030+):  https://iupac.org/project/2020-014-3-050/

 

Cross-Disciplinary Goals of Green Chemistry and the Basic Sciences for Sustainable Developmenthttps://iupac.org/project/2022-021-2-041/

 

Assessment of the Contributions of IUPAC Projects to the Achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.  https://iupac.org/project/2020-011-2-041/

 

Learning Objects Authored

Published

Title Authors and Co-authors Published on
Module III. Sustainable Adhesives from Soybean Oil: A Green Chemistry Laboratory Experiment Michael Wentzel, Mitchel Munzing, Jane Wissinger, Kris Weigal, Rick Heggs, Amy Cannon, Omar Villanueva, Monica Soma Hensley A farm background with green rectangle
Module IIA. Innovations in Soy Chemistry: Industrial Case Studies Jane Wissinger, Michael Wentzel, Kris Weigal, Rick Heggs, Amy Cannon, Monica Soma Hensley A farm background with green rectangle
Module I. Introduction to Soybean History, Cultivation, and Chemistry Jane Wissinger, Michael Wentzel, Kris Weigal, Rick Heggs, Amy Cannon, Omar Villanueva, Monica Soma Hensley A farm background with green rectangle
00 Soy Chemistry Curriculum Overview - Instructor Notes Jane Wissinger, Michael Wentzel, Kris Weigal, Rick Heggs, Amy Cannon, Julian Silverman, Mitchel Munzing, Omar Villanueva, Monica Soma Hensley cover image for soy chemistry curriculum with green box and white text overlaid on a picture of a farm
A Guide To Green Chemistry Experiments for Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Labs Beyond Benign, Irv Levy, Loyd Bastin, [email protected], Ryan Trovitch, Jane Wissinger Guidebook cover showing a photograph of chemistry glassware with a blue and green filter on top with the following text written in white: A Guide To Green Chemistry Experiments for Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Labs.
Iodination of vanillin and subsequent Suzuki-Miyaura coupling: two-step synthetic sequence teaching green chemistry principles Jane Wissinger Learning Objets
Make It and Break It: Bioplastics from Plant Starch with Incorporation of Engineering Principles Jane Wissinger, Cassandra Lydon, Cassie Javner Make It and Break It
Thirst for a Solution: Alginate Biopolymer Experiments for the Middle and High School Classroom Cassandra Lydon, Jane Wissinger, Mollie Enright Graphical abstract
Oxidation of Borneol to Camphor Using Oxone and Catalytic Sodium Chloride: A Green Experiment for the Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Laboratory Jane Wissinger Green Oxidation of Borneol to Camphor Scheme
Dyeing to Degrade: A Bioplastics Experiment for the College and High School Classroom Jane Wissinger, Cassandra Lydon, Michael Wentzel, Angela Perkins Graphical abstract

My Groups
Group Name Description Type
Assessments in Green Chemistry Education

This group is dedicated to learning and sharing resources about how to effectively assess green

Open / Public

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Published Articles

ACS Committee on Environment and Sustainability  https://www.acs.org/about/governance/committees/environmental-improvement.html

 

IUPAC Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development https://iupac.org/body/041/

 

Chair, UMN Sustainable and Green Chemistry Committee https://sites.google.com/umn.edu/sgcc/home

 

Buenaflor J. P.; Hillmyer, M. S.; Wentzel, M. T.; Wissinger, J. E.. "Synthesis and Characterization of Biobased Lactose Hydrogels: A Teaching Experiment on Sustainable Polymers and Waste Biomass Valorization" J. Chem. Educ. 2023, 100, 10, 3981–3990.  https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jchemed.3c00195

 

Tundo, Pietro and Wissinger, Jane. "IUPAC Projects Contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Past, present, and future" Chemistry International, vol. 44, no. 4, 2022, pp. 35-37. https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2022-0413 

 

Buenaflor, J. P.; Lydon, C.; Zimmerman, A.; Desutter, O. L.; Wissinger, J. E., "Student explorations of calcium alginate bead formation by varying pH and concentration of acidic beverage juices",

Chemistry Teacher International,  2022, doi.org/10.1515/cti-2021-0027

 

Corcoran, E. R; Lydon, C.; Enright, M. C.; Buenaflor, J. P.; Anderson, K.; Wissinger, J. E. Corcoran, E. R; Lydon, C.; Enright, M. C.; Buenaflor, J. P.; Anderson, K.; Wissinger, J. E., "Thirst for a Solution: Alginate Biopolymer Experiments for the Middle and High School Classrooms", J. Chem. Educ. 2022, 99 (2), 1021-1025. 10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00905  

 

Wissinger, J. E.; Visa, A.; Saha, B. B.; Matlin, S.  A.; Mahaffy, P. G.; Kümmerer, K.; Cornell, S.  "Integrating Sustainability into Learning in Chemistry"  J. Chem. Educ. 2021, 98 (4), 1061-1063. 

10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00284 

 

Goode, S. R; Wissinger, J. E.; Wood-Black, F.  Introducing the Journal of Chemical Education's Special Issue on Chemical Safety Education: Methods, Culture, and Green Chemistry  J. Chem. Educ. 2021, 98 (1), 1-6. 10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c01459 

 

Gormong, E. A; Wentzel, M. T.; Cao, B.; Kundel, L. N.; Reineke, T. M., Wissinger, J. E., "Exploring Divergent Green Reaction Media for the Copolymerization of Biobased Monomers in the Teaching Laboratory", J. Chem. Educ. 2020 98 (2), 559-566. 10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00688 

 

Aubrecht, K. B.; Bourgeois, M.; Brush, E. J.; MacKellar, J.; Wissinger, J. E. "Integrating Green Chemistry in the Curriculum: Building Student Skills in Systems Thinking, Safety, and Sustainability". J. Chem. Educ. 2019, 96 (12), 2872-2880. 10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00354

 

Knutson, C. M.; Hiler, A.; Tolstyka, Z. P.; Wilbon, P. A.; Mathers, R. T.; Anderson, C. B.; Perkins, A. L.; Wissinger, J. E. "Dyeing to Degrade: A Bioplastics Experiment for the College and High School Classroom", J. Chem. Educ. 2019, 96 (11), 2565-2573. 10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00461

 

Palesh, J. J; Gilles, B. C.; Chycota, J.; Haj, M. K.; Fahnhorst, G. W.; Wissinger, J. E. "Iodination of vanillin and subsequent Suzuki-Miyaura coupling: Two-step synthetic sequence teaching green chemistry principles", Green Chemistry Letters and Reviews, 2019, 12 (2), 117-126. doi.org/10.1080/17518253.2019.1609603

 

Knutson, C.; Schneiderman, D. K.; Yu, Ming; Javner, C.; Distefano, M. D.; Wissinger, J. E. "Polymeric Medical Sutures: an Exploration of Polymers and Green Chemistry",  J. Chem. Educ. 2017, 94, 1761-1765. 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00835

 

Fahnhorst, G. W.; Swingen, Z. J.; Schneiderman, D. K.; Blaquiere, C. S.; Wentzel, M. T.; Wissinger, J. E. "Synthesis and Study of Sustainable Polymers in the Organic Chemistry Laboratory: An inquiry-based experiment exploring the effects of size and composition on the properties of renewable block polymers", Green Chemistry Experiments in Undergraduate Laboratories; Fahey, J.; Maelia, L. Ed.; ACS Symposium Series, 2016, Chapter 8, pp. 123-147. 10.1021/bk-2016-1233.ch008

 

Giang T. Hoang, Tomohiro Kubo, Victor G. YoungJr., Jacob A. Kautzky, and Jane E. Wissinger "Illustrating the Utility of X-ray Crystallography for Structure Elucidation through a Tandem Aldol Condensation/Diels–Alder Reaction Sequence", J. Chem. Ed., 2015, 92, 1381–1384. 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00027

 

Deborah K. Schneiderman, Chad Gilmer, Michael T. Wentzel, Mark T. Martello, Tomohiro Kubo, and Jane E. Wissinger. "Sustainable Polymers in the Organic Chemistry Laboratory: Synthesis and Characterization of a Renewable Polymer from δ-Decalactone and l-Lactide",  J. Chem. Ed., 2014, 91, 131–135. 10.1021/ed400185u

 

Patrick T. Lang, Andrew M. Harned*, and Jane E. Wissinger. "Oxidation of Borneol to Camphor Using Oxone and Catalytic Sodium Chloride: A Green Experiment for the Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Laboratory",   J. Chem. Ed., 2011, 88, 652–656. 10.1021/ed100853f

Recent Activity