Susan Gasper
Extension Educator, S.T.E.M. Cook County Unit 10244 South Vincennes Avenue
Chicago, IL 60643
Phone: 773-233-2900 FAX: 773-233-9183
smgasper@illinois.edu
Sue Gasper works with individuals throughout Cook County to
enhance their understanding and appreciation of all sciences, with an emphasis
on chemistry. She provides programming to students and
teachers, as well as parents and other groups of adults that want to learn
about the wonders of chemistry.
Sue graduated from Loyola University in Chicago with a bachelor
of science in chemistry and a minor in physics.
She began her graduate work in organic chemistry at the University of
Illinois and relocated to the Georgia Institute of Technology with her research
group where she completed her PhD. She
has also completed a minor in biochemistry at the graduate level. The theme of her academic research was mechanistic
organic photochemistry.
After graduate school, Sue worked in R&D at Corning
Incorporated for nearly 10 years where she investigated polymeric coatings and
managed a research project on organic semiconductors. She returned to the Chicago area in 2008 and
became a volunteer in the U of I Extension Master Gardener program. She joined Extension at the end of 2008 as the
Master Gardener Coordinator for Chicago and held that position until 2012. She is currently a S.T.E.M. educator in Cook
County.
Sue is an author on several publications in peer-reviewed
journals and is the inventor on two US patents.
She has presented her research at national meetings of the American
Chemical Society and at the RadTech conference.
She served as the president of the Loyola University Student Affiliate
of the American Chemical Society and as the Treasurer of the Corning Section of
the American Chemical Society. She was
the recipient of Loyola University's Chemistry Department Service Award as well
as a Department of Energy Fellowship for Nuclear Chemistry Summer School. At Corning Incorporated, Sue was a member of
the team that received the Outstanding Publication Award in 2007.
She is currently a member of the American Chemical Society
and its Division of Chemical Education.
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