Cheatum will work alongside Administrative Faculty Fellow David Gier, Director of the UI School of Music and Erich Funke Professor in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.
The terms of Faculty Fellows Thomas Scholz, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology in the Carver College of Medicine, and Meenakshi Gigi Durham, Ph.D., Professor and Collegiate Scholar in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, end this summer.
Faculty Fellows work closely with the OVPR&ED senior staff to foster deeper intellectual partnerships between the office and the faculty and assist with special projects across the research enterprise while acquiring skills and knowledge that can prepare them to serve in academic administration in the future.
In addition to working on projects, fellows participate as peers in meetings of OVPR&ED’s senior staff, the Research Council, and other governance groups.
Cheatum and his research group study chemical structure and dynamics using 2D Infrared (IR) spectroscopy, using lasers to excite molecular vibrations to learn how the molecules move and how those motions affect the molecule's reactivity.
He’s published widely and has received multiple academic and professional awards, including a 2014-2015 Collegiate Teaching Award from the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, where he teaches both undergraduate and graduate chemistry courses. He was instrumental in establishing an Honors section of the Principles of Chemistry course sequence, a course for which he is particularly well known.
He shares his passion for science and inquiry off-campus, as well, and has worked to promote STEM education with local grade-school students, coaching a STEM Lego League at Lemme and Twain Elementary Schools, running a weekly after-school science club for third- through sixth-graders, and conducted chemistry demonstrations.
The Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development provides resources and support to researchers and scholars at the University of Iowa and to businesses across Iowa with the goal of forging new frontiers of discovery and innovation and promoting a culture of creativity that benefits the campus, the state, and the world. More at http://research.uiowa.edu, and on Twitter: @DaretoDiscover.