Audrey Maddox
Features Reporter

He rolls down to campus on a well-worn longboard. Curving along the campus sidewalks, he comes to a stop just outside Wubben Hall. He takes the board in his hand and continues to his first class on foot. It sounds like the morning of any typical student, but Professor Tim D’Andrea is not a student. He is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at CMU.

 

 

After graduating with a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Colorado, Boulder, D’Andrea found his way to a teaching position at CMU with the help of a colleague. Now, after five years, he makes the most of every moment living and working in Grand Junction.

Every fall, D’Andrea and other faculty members raft down the San Juan river together for three days. They paddle and float along until reaching a certain pull-off. There, he hikes up a dirt trail until reaching a mostly-intact Native American ruin known as River House. It’s built underneath a sandstone wall among the canyons.

“It’s a really surreal experience walking around there,” D’Andrea said. “Sitting in these old rooms, taking it all in, it’s pretty eerie. That’s a cool trip. I look forward to that every year.”

After a day of classes, D’Andrea may head to band practice with his newly-formed funk band, Tight Thump. Or he may continue the lab work in a new way at home. Just like with beakers and chemicals in the lab, D’Andrea works in his home to brew his own beer.

“I’ve brewed my own beer since I’ve been in Grand Junction,” D’Andrea said. “It’s a fun hobby. It’s a little applied chemistry lab, and you get to drink the final product.”

D’Andrea was not always a chemistry whiz. In fact, when he took chemistry for the first time in high school, he struggled. Then, during his senior year of high school he had a second chance. With the help of his enthusiastic teacher, he discovered his love for chemistry.

“It was interesting,” D’Andrea said. “Chemistry is very analytical. It was the first class I ever took that made me think in a certain way. There’s not a lot of memorization, but there is a lot of understanding concepts and applying them to problems. I guess it’s just the way my brain works.”

Now, at CMU, D’Andrea teaches every level of chemistry, from general education to the most advanced courses. He tries to bring that same enthusiasm to CMU chemistry students.

“He’s very energetic,” senior chemistry major Alexander Brown said. “He’s fun. He will get you pumped up about chemistry.”

One way of doing this is through labs. A common lab for his general chemistry class is making nylon. After mixing a few chemicals, students end up with two liquids that don’t mix, like oil and water.

“It doesn’t really look like much is happening,” D’Andrea said. “But you take tweezers and start pulling out this huge web of nylon. From this little beaker you can wind up with 50 feet of nylon. We try to do a number of these labs in general chemistry where they are pretty straightforward experiments, but the wow factor is pretty big. That’s the fun of chemistry.”

D’Andrea fills his time in Grand Junction with outdoor adventures, musical pursuits and chemistry on and off campus. However, he thinks one of the greatest draws of this town is Colorado Mesa University.

“The amount of time that you get to spend with students here and the relationships you get to build with students is pretty unique,” D’Andrea said.

“They are always hanging out outside your office asking you questions, and you get to see them grow and build relationships with them that you don’t get at a bigger university. That’s definitely one of the most appealing aspects of the job.”

akmaddox@mavs.coloradomesa.edu