FACULTY - Z. Vivian Feng
Assistant Professor
The first semester she began college, Vivian Feng found herself in a chemistry lab doing research. “That’s what kept me in chemistry,” she says. “I had an excellent mentor who taught me so much—of chemistry and life—and that’s what a liberal arts education offers.”
Professor Feng is an analytical chemist. She joined Augsburg in September 2008, after initiating her career as an assistant professor at the University of Puget Sound (Tacoma, WA) for a year, followed by two years as Research Educator at the University of Texas in Austin. After the experience of teaching at a large research institutes, Dr. Feng is excited to return to a liberal arts college where faculty-students interaction is highly valued. She believes in the importance of creating an active learning environment for students in her courses, where students discussions are as important as faculty lectures. She is also interested in curriculum development designed to improve the laboratory experience associated with analytical chemistry and general chemistry, especially in terms of designing inquiry-based projects in these laboratory courses.
Feng believes that it is important to teach science through the research experience. For her, “it’s intellectually challenging and keeps me updated in the research field.” She developed an abiding interest in material chemistry, especially material characterization and analysis from her previous research experience in biomembranes and nanoparticles. “Research with undergraduate researchers is another form of teaching. Students absorb so many new concepts and scientific relationships through research experience without the conventional lectures and exams. But because they see how the knowledge is applied, they now truly understand it.” Since arriving at Augsburg, Feng has directed several undergraduate research projects with regional academic and industrial collaborators.
