Thomas R. Gilbert

Associate Professor

109 Hurtig Hall
Tel: 617.373.4505
Fax: 617.373.8795
t.gilbert@neu.edu

Chemical Education

Education:

1972 Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1968 B.S., Clarkson College of Technology

Research Interests

Prof. Gilbert's research focus is chemical and science education. His interests include developing instructional materials and pedagogical strategies that provide non-chemical contexts for introducing the principles of chemistry, and that demonstrate the centrality of chemistry among the sciences. He is exploring new ways to use technology, process-oriented guided inquiry, and cooperative teaching methods to teach large lecture sections and to promote higher order learning in science courses.

Prof. Gilbert is the principal investigator of a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) Program. Each year from 2004 to 2009 the grant will support six Northeastern students pursuing graduate degrees in science, mathematics, and engineering who assist teachers in nearby middle and high schools. The Fellows help teachers design and implement new lessons, instructional materials, and lab experiments, and they help students with science projects and to prepare for high-stakes examinations. GK-12 Fellows work 10 hours per week in their schools during the school year, for which they receive a waiver of tuition and an annual stipend of $30,000. Chemistry graduate students, or prospective students, who are interested in becoming a GK-12 Fellow should contact Prof. Gilbert.

Selected Publications

Gilbert, T.R., R.V. Kirss; N. Foster, and G. Davies. 2009. Chemistry: The Science in Context, 2nd ed., New York, NY: W.W. Norton.

Carrilho, E. N.; J. A. Nobrega, and T. R. Gilbert. 2003. The Use of Silica-Immobilized Brown Alga (Pilayella littoralis) for Metal Preconcentration and Determination by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry. Talanta,60: 1131-1140.

Carrilho, E. N.; A. G. Ferreira, and T. R. Gilbert. 2002. Characterization of Sorption Sites on Pilayella littoralis and Metal Binding Assessment using 113Cd and 27Al Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Environ. Sci. Technol., 36: 2003-2007.