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Fostvedt, Jade

Jade Fostvedt

Jade Fostvedt

Teaching Assistant Professor

Not Accepting Doctoral Students

   Kenan Labs C147B
   919-843-7100
   jfost@unc.edu
  Curriculum Vitae


Research Interests

Chemistry Education; Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry


Research Synopsis

I am trained as a molecular inorganic chemist, specializing in the design of reactive organometallic complexes. To this end, I employed air-free synthetic techniques to isolate metal complexes and subsequently investigate their reactivity. My graduate research aimed to explore novel complexes containing early transition metal centers (namely Nb and Ta), with the goal of using these complexes to carry out difficult chemical transformations of abundant diatomic molecules, such as H2, N2, and CO. My research provided me with a fascinating molecular playground in which I could see the concepts I learned in the classroom come to life. In my current role as a teaching professor, I aim to help students develop their own passions through chemistry.

 

Chemistry has a reputation among students as being a particularly challenging subject to learn. However, a dedicated and innovative teacher has the power to change this narrative, transforming the chemistry classroom into a space for curiosity, joy, and community. My teaching philosophy is simple: everyone in the classroom, including the teacher, is a co-constructor of knowledge. My main goals for student learning are to: 1) guide students in developing a rich, connected, and relevant understanding of chemistry; and 2) move students toward higher levels of thinking, so that they may skeptically and skillfully evaluate observations, claims, and data. Furthermore, I aim to maximize retention, degree completion, and career opportunities for undergraduate chemists by using evidence-based practices to minimize disparity in equity and opportunities among diverse groups. I work toward this goal by departing from traditional lecture-based methods of teaching, validating student science identities, creating a supportive classroom community, and offering flexible opportunities for demonstrating content mastery.

Professional Background

B.S. Chemistry, Goldwater Scholar, University of South Dakota, 2017; Ph.D. Synthetic Chemistry, NSF Graduate Research Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, 2022; Teaching Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2022-present.


News & Publications

In an effort to redesign the Chemistry Department’s Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE), Dr. Jade Fostvedt, in collaboration with the Chemistry Department’s Dr. Michel Gagné, Dr. Jillian Dempsey, and Dr. Kathleen Nevins, set out to create a new project for CHEM 550L, a capstone synthetic chemistry laboratory course, and the proposed course was one of the recipients of the UNC Systems Research Program Award.

 

We are so pleased to announce our new faculty members: Erin Baker, Jade Fostvedt, Megan Jackson, and Huong Kratochvil, and we hope everyone will welcome them to our department.

 

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