Alfred R. Conklin Jr.

Alfred R. Conklin, Jr. Ph.D.

Professor of Agriculture and Chemistry

International Director International Undergraduate Research Symposium

Wilmington College

Wilmington, Ohio, U.S.A.

Has taught for more than 42 years. Teaches Organic Chemistry and Chemistry and the Environment for the Chemistry Department and Introductory Soils and Advanced Soils for the Agriculture Department. Taught two short courses at the Pittsburgh Conference.

Is the International Director and co-founder of the International Undergraduate Research Symposium. Symposia have been held in Ecuador, the United States, the Philippines and Serbia.

Written and published four books, three laboratory manuals, a book of soils demonstrations, one book of travels and two edunovels. Has written both refereed and non-refereed articles including a series of articles on soils in a Series titled AcadeMix in the magazine Analysis Monitoring Remediation Soils. Presents posters and talks at national and international meetings.

Postdoctoral position at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) working with Listeria spp. and holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Chemistry and Soils from the University of Arizona, an MS in Organic Chemistry from Fisk University and a BA from Transylvania University.

A Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines from 1966 to 1969. Has had three Fulbrights, two in the Philippines in 1982-83 and 2004-05 and one in Zimbabwe in 1999. Has done extensive short term work in both the Philippines and Africa primarily in the area of soil chemistry.

A longtime member of the Fulbright Academy of Science and Technology, which is now part of the Fulbright Association; the American Chemical Society (ACS); the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA); Agronomy Society of America (ASA) and The North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA).

Consultant to two environmental remediation firms working with remediation of fuel and creosote contaminated soils. One project involved phytoremediation and the other remediation of excavated soils.

As can be seen from above my writing is diverse. It is also not one of my main occupations!

My writing

I think of my writing as developing from an architecture rather than an outline. First the overall form, and often function of the work is sketched out and then the individual parts and sub-parts developed. At that point the individual paragraphs may or may not be outlined. Outlining is generally accomplished in brain rather than on paper. I was once told that a “thing” could not be produced unless a detailed plan was first drawn. For me, the detailed plan is developed in my head and is rarely put on paper before or after I start building the “thing” whether it be a piece of furniture, a paragraph, an article or a book.

ARC