Tom Kuntzleman, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry, Director, Cougar Science Camp; Associate Editor, Chemical Education XchangeBio
Tom Kuntzleman has broad interests, which reflects his profound curiosity in how the universe operates. He publishes regularly in the Journal of Chemical Education on topics that describe interesting, everyday applications of chemistry. His articles include descriptions of the chemistry of batteries, glow sticks, the Diet Coke and Mentos reaction, and how stunt people safely light themselves on fire. He is an associate editor of the Chemical Education Exchange, and has recently been named an honorary fellow at the University of Wisconsin, working in Bassam Shakhashiri’s group.
Tom’s broad range of interests serves him well, as his work at SAU involves teaching general, analytical, inorganic, and physical chemistry. Kuntzleman actively recruits students to work alongside him on many of his research projects, with students sharing authorship him on several publications. He strives to engage his students in the subject matter, making chemistry come alive through chemical demonstrations and hands-on activities as much as possible. Kuntzleman is very active in awakening public interest in science, as he has presented well over 300 chemical demonstration shows to the public on campus, local schools, and other community venues. He also is the director of SAU’s popular Cougar Science Camp and also directs the annual Halloween in the Science Lab celebration.
You can see some of his explorations by following him on Twitter (@pchemstud), checking out his YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/TommyTechnetium) or by visiting his blog at https://www.chemedx.org/blogs/tom-kuntzleman.
Education
- Ph.D.: (Physical Chemistry) University of Michigan, 2005
Why SAU
I grew up in Spring Arbor! Spring Arbor University (then Spring Arbor College) and the surrounding community had a significant, positive impact on my development as I was growing up. After college, working, and graduate school, I had the opportunity to come back to SAU to teach. I naturally jumped at the chance. I find it incredibly meaningful to be able to work in the community that had such a profound influence on me as I grew into adulthood. I love interacting with all the SAU students that come across my path, especially those that enjoy playing around with science experiments.
Memberships and Affiliations
Member
Honorary Fellow
Awards & Honors
Journal of Chemical Education
Video Competition
Publications
| Kuntzleman, T.S.; Imhoff, A. M. How Many Bubbles Are in the Foam Produced during the Candy-Cola Soda Geyser? Journal of Chemical Education 2021, 98, 3915 – 3920.
Kuntzleman, T. S.; Corts, S. Schmidt, A. At-Home Titration: Magnesium Hydroxide in Milk of Magnesia using an Inexpensive Digital Balance and Natural Food Dye as Indicators Journal of Chemical Education, 2021, 98, 2592 – 2595. Kuntzleman, T.S.; Kuntzleman, J.T. Ethanol as a Probe for the Mechanism of Bubble Nucleation in the Diet Coke and Mentos Experiment Molecules, 2021, 26, 1691.-1707. Kuntzleman, T.S.; Mullen, A. The Effect of Temperature on Experiments Involving Carbonated Beverages Journal of Chemical Education, 2020, 97, 4033 – 4038. Kuntzleman, T. S.; Cullen, D. M.; Milam, S.; Ragan, D. Rapid Formation of Copper Patinas: A Simple Chemical Demonstration of Why the Statue of Liberty is Green Journal of Chemical Education, 2020, 97, 2244 – 2248. Kuntzleman, T. S.; Johnson, R. Probing the Mechanism of Bubble Nucleation in and the Effect of Atmospheric Pressure on the Candy–Cola Soda Geyser Journal of Chemical Education, 2020, 97, 980 – 985. Kuntzleman, T. S.; Annis, J.; Anderson, H.; Kenney, J. B.; Doctor, N. Kinetic Modeling of and Effect of Candy Additives on the Candy-Cola Soda Geyer: Experiments for Elementary School through Physical Chemistry Journal of Chemical Education, 2020, 97, 283 – 299. Baldwin, B. W.; Bunker, K. R.; Kuntzleman, T. S. Extraction of dyes contained in glow sticks using liquid CO2. Green Chem. Lett. Rev., 2019, 12, 101 – 106. Kuntzleman, T. S. Electrochemistry with Simple Materials to Create Designs and Write Messages. Journal of Chemical Education, 2019, 96, 1178 – 1181. Kuntzleman T. S.; Bunker, K. R.; Bartlett, A. A. Simple Glowmatography: Chromatographic Separation of Glow-Stick Dyes Using Chalk. Journal of Chemical Education, 2019, 96, 1506 – 1509. Kuntzleman, T. S.; Nydegger, M. W.; Shadley, B.; Doctor, N.; Campbell, D. J. Tribonucleation: A New Mechanism for Generating the Soda Geyser Journal of Chemical Education, 2018, 95, 1345 – 1349. Baldwin, B. W.; Kuntzleman, T. S. Liquid CO2 in Centrifuge Tubes: Separation of Chamazulene from Blue Tansy Tanacetum annuum Oil via Extraction and Thin Layer Chromatography Journal of Chemical Education, 2018, 95, 620 – 624. Kuntzleman, T. S.; Davenport, L. S.; Cothran, V. I.; Kuntzleman, J. T.; Campbell, D. J. New Demonstrations and New Insights on the Mechanism of the Candy-Cola Soda Geyser, Journal of Chemical Education, 2017, 94, 569–576. Sims, T. P. T.; Kuntzleman, T. S. Kinetic Explorations of the Candy – Cola Soda Geyser. Journal of Chemical Education, 2016, 93, 1809–1813. Hall, J. M.; Amend, J. R.; Kuntzleman, T. S. Experiments to Illustrate the Chemistry and Bouncing Ability of Fresh and Spent Zinc-Manganese Oxide Alkaline Batteries. Journal of Chemical Education, 2016, 93, 676–680. Kuntzleman, T. S.; Jacobson, E. C. Teaching Beer’s Law and Absorption Spectrophotometry with a Smart Phone: A Substantially Simplified Protocol. Journal of Chemical Education, 2016, 93, 1249–1252. Kuntzleman, T.S. National Chemistry Week: A Platform for Scholarship Journal of Chemical Education 2015, 92, 1585–1588. Kuntzleman, T.S. The Dynamic Density Bottle: A Make-and-Take, Guided Inquiry Activity on Density Journal of Chemical Education, 2015, 92, 1503–1506. Kuntzleman, T.S.; Ford, N.; No, J-H.; Ott, M.E. A Molecular Explanation of How the Fog Is Produced when Dry Ice Is Placed in Water. Journal of Chemical Education, 2015, 92, 643–648. Kuntzleman, T. S.; Baldwin, B. W.; Rohrer, K. N.; Kingsley, J.; Schaerer, C. L.; Sayers, D. K.; West, V. B. Constructing an Annotated Periodic Table Created with Interlocking Building Blocks: A National Chemistry Week Outreach Activity for All Ages Journal of Chemical Education, 2013, 90, 1346 – 1348. Kuntzleman, T.S.; Mork, D.J.; Norris, L.D.; Maniére-Spencer, C.D. Creating and Experimenting with Fire Gel, an Inexpensive and Readily Prepared Insulating Material Journal of Chemical Education, 2013, 90, 947–949. Williamson, J.C.; Kuntzleman, T.S.; Kafader, R.A. A Molecular Iodine Spectral Data Set for Rovibronic Analysis Journal of Chemical Education, 2013, 90, 383 – 385. Kuntzleman, T.S.; Rohrer, K.; Schultz, E. The Chemistry of Lightsticks: Demonstrations to Illustrate Chemical Processes Journal of Chemical Education, 2012, 89, 910 – 916. Kuntzleman, T.S.; Kenney, J.B.; Hasbrouck, S.; Collins, M.J.; Amend, J.R. Simple and Automatic Coulometric Titration of Acid Using Non-Isolated Electrodes Journal of Chemical Education, 2011, 88, 1565 – 1568. Kuntzleman, T.S.; Baldwin, B.W. Adventures in Coaching Young Chemists Journal of Chemical Education. 2011, 88, 863 – 867. Kuntzleman, T.S. Chromatography: A Simple Kinetic Approach The Chemical Educator, 2011, 16, 136 – 137. Howder, C.R.; Groen, K.D.; Kuntzleman, T.S. And the Oscar Goes to … A Chemist! Journal of Chemical Education. 2010, 87, 1060 – 1061. Kuntzleman, T.S.; Richards, C. Another Method for Determining the Pressure Inside an Intact Carbonated Beverage Can (or Bottle). Journal of Chemical Education. 2010, 87, 993. Kuntzleman, T.S.; Hasbrouck, S.; Smith, J. Demonstrating Various Flame Tests Using Common Household Materials. Journal of Chemical Education. 2010, 87, 790 – 792. Kuntzleman, T.S.; Masayuki, S. Intermolecular Interactions: Permanent Dipole- Permanent Dipole, Permanent Dipole-Induced Dipole, and London Dispersion Energies. Journal of Chemical Education, 2009, 86, 1469. Stewart, G.; Kuntzleman, T.S.; Amend, J. R.; Collins, M. J. Affordable Cyclic Voltammetry. Journal of Chemical Education, 2009, 86, 1080 – 1081. Kuntzleman, T.S.; Haddy, A. Fluoride inhibition of photosystem II and the effect of removal of the PsbQ subunit. Photsynth. Res. 2009, 102, 7 – 19. Haddy, A., Ore, B.M.; Kuntzleman, T.S. Characteristics of the Dark-Stable Multiline EPR Signal of Ca2+-Depleted Photosystem II. Biophys. J. 2009, 96, 526a. Kuntzleman, T.S.; Comfort, A.; Baldwin, B. Glowmatography. Journal of Chemical Education, 2009, 86, 64 – 67. Popelkova, H.; Commet, A.; Kuntzleman, T.; Yocum, C.F. Inorganic Cofactor Stabilization and Retention: The Unique Functions of the Two PsbO Subunits of Eukaryotic Photosystem II. Biochemistry, 2008, 47, 12593 – 12600. Kuntzleman, T.S.; Sellers, D.; Hoffmeyer, R. Having a Ball with Chemistry: More Things to Try. Journal of Chemical Education, 2008, 85, 1478 – 1480. Kuntzleman, T.S., Ellison, M.; Tippin, J. Construction of the Electronic Angular Wave Functions and Probability Distributions of the Hydrogen Atom. Journal of Chemical Education, 2007, 84, 1886. Kuntzleman, T.S., Swanson, M.S.; Sayers, D.K. Visualizing the Transition State: A Hands-on Approach to the Arrhenius Equation. Journal of Chemical Education, 2007, 84, 1776 – 1778. Kuntzleman, T.S., Construction of the Electronic Radial Wave Functions and Probability Distributions of Hydrogen-like Systems. Journal of Chemical Education, 2007, 84, 1231. Kuntzleman, T.; Yocum, C. Hydoxylamine is a substrate analogue of water in PSII. Proceedings of the 13th International Congress of Photosynthesis, 2005, 365 – 367. Kuntzleman, T.; Yocum, C.F. Reduction-induced inhibition and Mn(II) release from the Photosystem II oxygen-evolving complex by hydroquinone or NH2OH are consistent with a Mn(III)/Mn(III)/Mn(IV)/Mn(IV) oxidation state for the dark-adapted enzyme. Biochemistry 2005, 44, 2129 – 2142. Kuntzleman, T.; McCarrick, R.; Penner-Hahn, J.; Yocum, C. Probing reactive sites within the Photosystem II manganese cluster: Evidence for separate populations of manganese that differ in Redox Potential. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2004, 6, 4897 – 4904. |
Recent Research
Kuntzleman, T.S.; Imhoff, A. M. How Many Bubbles Are in the Foam Produced during the Candy-Cola Soda Geyser? Journal of Chemical Education 2021, 98, 3915 – 3920.
Kuntzleman, T. S.; Corts, S. Schmidt, A. At-Home Titration: Magnesium Hydroxide in Milk of Magnesia using an Inexpensive Digital Balance and Natural Food Dye as Indicators Journal of Chemical Education, 2021, 98, 2592 – 2595.
Kuntzleman, T.S.; Kuntzleman, J.T. Ethanol as a Probe for the Mechanism of Bubble Nucleation in the Diet Coke and Mentos Experiment Molecules, 2021, 26, 1691.-1707.
Kuntzleman, T.S.; Mullen, A. The Effect of Temperature on Experiments Involving Carbonated Beverages Journal of Chemical Education, 2020, 97, 4033 – 4038.
Kuntzleman, T. S.; Cullen, D. M.; Milam, S.; Ragan, D. Rapid Formation of Copper Patinas: A Simple Chemical Demonstration of Why the Statue of Liberty is Green Journal of Chemical Education, 2020, 97, 2244 – 2248.
Kuntzleman, T. S.; Johnson, R. Probing the Mechanism of Bubble Nucleation in and the Effect of Atmospheric Pressure on the Candy–Cola Soda Geyser Journal of Chemical Education, 2020, 97, 980 – 985.
Kuntzleman, T. S.; Annis, J.; Anderson, H.; Kenney, J. B.; Doctor, N. Kinetic Modeling of and Effect of Candy Additives on the Candy-Cola Soda Geyer: Experiments for Elementary School through Physical Chemistry Journal of Chemical Education, 2020, 97, 283 – 299.