Mark Griep

Mark Griep is an emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is currently focused on the history of his department, which is known for having women as faculty, students, and staff during its earliest years, at a time when few other departments would even admit women into their programs. His latest book, "A Formula for Success," is a biography of the men and women who were part of this amazing period.

During Griep's career as a professor, he studied the function of the enzymes that duplicate DNA in bacteria, receiving research support from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He received several teaching awards including the Hazel R. McClymont Distinguished Teaching Fellow Award from UNL, the Helen M. Free Award for Public Outreach from the American Chemical Society, and the Estee Lectureship from the University of South Dakota.

Griep wrote "ReAction! Chemistry in the Movies" (2009) with his artist wife Marjorie Mikasen. The idea for the book began in 2000 when they discovered that Elvis was a chemist in "Clambake" (1967). In that movie, Elvis develops a super-hard, super-fast-drying varnish called GOOP, which is short for glycol oxyoctanoic phosphate. Elvis even sings a song about it! After that experience, Griep began keeping a list that has since grown to 1400 movies. Griep and Mikasen watched over 300 of those movies before they wrote their book, which describes the chemistry in over 110 movies in some detail. The book is written to serve as a resource for chemistry teachers and instructors but it will also be fun for chemists, film buffs, and anyone interested in the relationship between science and society.

Griep wrote "Easy and Lucid Guide to a Knowledge of Rachel Abbie Holloway Lloyd" (2014) to coincide with her receiving status as a National Historic Chemical Landmark. Dr. Lloyd was the first American woman to receive a PhD in Chemistry (1887 University of Zurich) and was hired shortly thereafter by the University of Nebraska as an Associate Professor of Chemistry. Griep began researching her life and research in 1997 when a colleague casually mentioned that Dr. Lloyd had been the first woman member of his department.

Griep wrote "Joseph Maffre: Master of the Band" (2015) with his artist wife Marjorie Mikasen. They started climbing her family tree shortly after they got married but they didn't find Joseph Maffre until they had been climbing for over a decade. It came as a surprise, therefore, that Maffre was the leading musician in 1840's Montreal and had left a very long paper trail in Corsica, England, Ireland, and Canada.