Lavelle, Laurence

Laurence Lavelle was born in Dublin, Ireland and went to St.David’s in Johannesburg and Bishops in Cape Town, South Africa. At the University of Cape Town (UCT) he completed his B.Sc. (Chemistry major, and Microbiology and Physical Oceanography minors), B.Sc. (Honors, Chemistry), and M.Sc. (Distinction, Physical Chemistry). While putting himself through university he was also employed at UCT as a research assistant, teaching assistant, and a tutor. After graduating from UCT he accepted a faculty position in the Chemistry Dept. at the University of The Witwatersrand (WITS), South Africa. He then moved to the United States and his M.A. and Ph.D. are both in Molecular Biophysics from Princeton University. After one year as a post-doctorate at UCLA’s Molecular Biology Institute he joined the faculty in the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry where he currently teaches over two thousand enrolled students per year and supervises over thirty teaching assistants and tutors per year. Students consider his lectures outstanding with class average evaluations above 8 on a 1-9 scale. He has also taught at the University of Cape Town, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the University of the Witwatersrand, and Princeton University.

Dr. Lavelle is active in research and has published in the areas of host-guest chemistry, the periodic table, DNA and RNA stability and structure, and virus stability and self-assembly. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Chemical Society, the American Physical Society, the Biophysical Society, Sigma Xi, The Royal Society of Chemistry, and the American Federation of Teachers.

He is the recipient of many research and teaching awards including the Sir Robert Kotze Award, the Harry Crossley Award, a CSIR Fellowship, Berlex Fellowship, Molecular Biophysics NIH Fellowship, the Herbert Newby McCoy Award for Innovative Research at UCLA, the Hanson-Dow Award for Teaching Excellence at UCLA, the UCLA AAP Faculty Recognition Award, and UCLA’s highest teaching award the University Distinguished Teaching Award. He has one patent and is the coauthor of nine books, some of which can be see on his Author Page.

At one time or another his interests and hobbies have included cross country and middle distance running, hiking, dog training, horse riding and jumping, sky and scuba diving, waterpolo, rugby, performance driving, sailing, travel, cooking, meditation, yoga, chess, analysis of financial markets and trading, and collecting stamps, art and wine. He lives with his wife (faculty and director of the UCLA Early Childhood Autism Clinic) and has family in England, Ireland, Italy, Germany and South Africa.

Teaching

All courses at UCLA are evaluated by students at the end of each quarter. These class evaluations consist of seven questions on a 1-9 scale and the option to write additional comments. They are handled by a centrally administered organization, the Office of Instructional Development, that is independent of all departments at UCLA. The second of these seven questions which asks the student to evaluate lectures or class presentations is the single most important question dealing with the preparation and quality of a lecture. Dr. Lavelle’s yearly averages from 2001 to the present can be found at: Student Evaluations – a total of 12,291 student evaluations with an average lecture quality of 8.14 on a 1-9 scale.

Courses Taught at UCLA: Chem-10A (General Chemistry for Life Science Majors); Chem-14A (Atomic and Molecular Structure, Equilibria, Acids and Bases); Chem-14B (Thermodynamics, Electrochemistry, Kinetics, and Organic Chemistry); Chem-19 (Fiat Lux Seminar: Chemistry as Foundation for Research); Chem-20B (Chemical Energetics and Change); Chem-89 (Honors Seminar); Chem-89HC (Honors Contract); Chem-99 (Student Research Program); Chem-156 (Physical Biochemistry); Chem-196A (Research Apprenticeship in Chemistry and Biochemistry); Chem-196B (Research Apprenticeship in Chemistry and Biochemistry); Chem-199 (Directed Research in Chemistry and Biochemistry); Chem-375 (Teaching Apprenticeship Practicum)

Patents

US Patent 6,783,932, Issued 8-31-2004, Fresco, J.R., Lavelle, L., Stabilization of Triplexes by Water Structure-Making Substances.

Laurence Lavelle’s Author Pages can be found here and here.

Book Bio

Laurence Lavelle excels in clear, thoughtful education and is the recipient of many research and teaching awards including the Herbert Newby McCoy Award
for Innovative Research at UCLA, the Hanson-Dow Award for Teaching Excellence at UCLA, the UCLA AAP Faculty Recognition Award, and UCLA’s exemplary University Distinguished Teaching Award. Laurence has taught over 28,000 students who consider his lectures outstanding with class average evaluations above 8 on a 1-9 scale, and supervised over 300 teaching assistants.

His live lectures are audio and video podcast and he has used and continues to developed innovative online educational materials since
1997. His broad education with degrees from the University of Cape Town
(B.Sc., B.Sc. Honors., M.Sc. Distinction) and Princeton University (M.A., Ph.D.) includes chemistry, physical chemistry, microbiology, physical oceanography, and molecular biophysics.

His scientific publications range from inorganic chemistry on host-guest compounds to experimental and theoretical work on biological structures including single-stranded, double-stranded and triple-stranded DNA, macromolecular crystallography, and virus self-assembly. He has taught at the University of Cape Town, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the University of the Witwatersrand, Princeton University, and currently teaches at UCLA. Laurence has one patent and is the coauthor of nine books his most recent being Chemical Principles
Instructor Solutions Manual (594 pages, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-4641-2434-1) and Chemical Principles Student Solutions Manual (541 pages, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-4641-0707-8).

Hoeger, C., Lavelle, L., Ma, Y.
Chemical Principles Student Solutions Manual
(2013) 6th Ed., 541 pages, W.H. Freeman, NY, ISBN-13: 978-1-4641-0707-8

Hoeger, C., Lavelle, L., Ma, Y.
Chemical Principles Instructor Solutions Manual (2013)
6th Ed., 594 pages, W.H. Freeman, NY, ISBN-13: 978-1-4641-2434-1

Krenos, J., Potenza, J., Lavelle, L., Ma, Y. , Hoeger, C.
Chemical Principles Student Study Guide and Solutions Manual, Turkish Translation (2013)
5th Ed., 556 pages, W.H. Freeman, NY, ISBN-13: 978-6-0535-5183-6

Paparella, T., Lavelle, L.
More Than Hope: For Young Children On The Autism Spectrum (2012) 1st Ed., Quick Link Learning, Los Angeles, ISBN-13: 978-0-9851951-0-6

Lavelle, L.
Laminated Color Periodic Table and Formula Sheet for Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Physics (2012) 1st Ed., Quick Link Learning, Los Angeles, ISBN-13: 978-0-9851951-1-3

Hoeger, C., Lavelle, L., Ma, Y.
Chemical Principles Instructor’s Solutions Manual (2010) 5th Ed., 566 pages, W.H. Freeman, NY, ISBN-13: 978-1-4292-3892-2

Krenos, J., Potenza, J., Lavelle, L., Ma, Y., Hoeger, C.
Chemical Principles Student Study Guide and Solutions Manual (2010) 5th Ed., 556 pages, W.H. Freeman, NY, ISBN-13: 978-1-4292-3135-0

Atkins, P., Jones, L., Lavelle, L.
Chemical Principles (2008) 4th Ed.,
Customized Volume 2, W.H. Freeman, NY, ISBN-13: 978-1-4292-1871-9

Hoeger, C., Lavelle, L., Ma, Y.
Chemical Principles Instructor’s Solutions
Manual (2007)
4th Ed., 540 pages, W.H. Freeman, NY, ISBN-13:
978-1-4292-0100-1

Krenos, J., Potenza, J., Lavelle, L., Ma, Y., Hoeger, C.
Chemical Principles
Student Study Guide and Solutions Manual
(2007) 4th Ed., 537 pages, W.H. Freeman, NY, ISBN-13: 978-1-4292-0099-8

Atkins, P., Jones, L., Lavelle, L.
Chemical Principles (2007) 3rd Ed.,
Customized Volume 2, W.H. Freeman, NY, ISBN-13: 978-1-4292-0438-5