Dr. Lynn Hartshorn Retires After 28 Years at UST

Lynn Hartshorn first arrived on the St. Thomas campus in 1982 to teach as a sabbatical leave replacement for Dr. Martin Allen. Lynn taught the physical chemistry courses, her area of expertise. In the following year Lynn taught at Hamline in another temporary position and then she returned to St. Thomas in a part-time adjunct position for a few years. By 1990 Lynn assumed a full-time, tenure track position at UST. From the beginning Lynn was involved as the coordinator for outreach activities for the Chemistry Department. With Dr. Tom Tommet from UST Physics, Lynn worked for many years to teach and deliver summer workshop materials for secondary school science teachers. Lynn was instrumental in developing the SMEE major at St. Thomas. Science education became her forte.

The first-year general chemistry program at St. Thomas is very important and Lynn eventually became the leader of the “general chemistry team.” She taught for many years in the honors chemistry course, and she was a pioneer in developing group learning exercises for general chemistry. By this time Lynn was quite involved with activities in the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society.

Dr. Harthshorn served a term as President of the local section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and for many years she has represented the local ACS section as a Councilor at National Meetings of the ACS.

At UST, Lynn has served as Chair of the Department of Chemistry, as Director of the Division of Sciences and Mathematics, and as a member of the Academic Council. Her contributions to UST have been large.

Twenty-eight years have passed since Dr. Hartshorn first arrived at St. Thomas. She retires after a distinguished career, after which she would be allowed to say “Been there, done that.”