The phrase "organic chemistry" elicits a spectrum of different reactions. Some students shudder in fear while other students are excited to learn more about aliphatic compounds. Regardless of the feeling, organic chemistry is notorious for being extremely difficult, especially at Hopkins. And when students are struggling, the best solution is to go to office hours.
Enter the office of Dr. Christopher Falzone. Once Falzone meets you in his office, he will make sure to learn your name. He will greet you with a smile when you come in before lecture begins and notice when you get to class late. If you visit frequently enough, he might even come to know what time you have a club meeting or practice each day.
This more casual relationship with his students was inspired by the relationships he had with his professors as an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL). He described the many afternoons he spent at the Holmes quadrangle — the main quad at WUSTL.
"Students would get coffee or iced tea and go to sit on the quad. They saw many professors there who were doing the same thing, and would wind up having amazing conversations with them. You'd learn so much about what influenced [your professors] and why they were teaching. They were welcoming, and they were always happy to talk to you if they weren't too busy," Falzone said.
When he was not on the quad, Falzone spent his undergraduate years studying a variety of subjects. Besides chemistry, he also had a love for literature through his fondness for Shakespeare.
"I liked classes about books — studying the great American or European writers, so I took literature classes. I loved those because I knew I had to become a pretty good writer; I felt that people with good writing skills went places," Falzone said.
After college, Falzone immediately went to graduate school. He followed one of his mentors to Clarkson University, where he obtained a PhD in chemistry. Since then, he has taught organic chemistry for the past nineteen years, the past four of which have been here at Hopkins.
Now, with his own students, he looks to a model of teaching that he learned as an undergraduate at WUSTL.
"[As a student], you should have access to your professors. I don't think there should be any walls put up. Students should have people who are giving them professional advice. I consider myself an advisor, and that is an important aspect of my job", Falzone said.
After four years at Homewood, Falzone has come to like many aspects of the university and appreciate the beauty of the Hopkins landscape. Particularly, he has a high sense of admiration for the students he works with — the hard working atmosphere they foster makes Hopkins a great place to work.
"I enjoy this campus a lot," Falzone said. "I think it's a pretty campus, and a great environment. I like the ingenuity of some of the students. There are many practical jokes that I don't see always but I hear about. There's also a seriousness to these students, yet by and large they show up motivated. I never see students just taking a class to check a box. I'm not saying you guys don't have fun, but I like the focused atmosphere here. I'm surrounded by students who want to do great work."
As a well-seasoned professional in the field of academia, Falzone understands the value of knowledge and emphasizes to students the importance of truly absorbing what is being taught in class versus robotic memorization.
"I believe you have to know why things happen, and I think you have to visualize things," Falzone said. "You can't memorize everything because [organic chemistry] is different than a language: there's only one way to conjugate a verb correctly, but there are thousands of ways to do an organic reaction. . .My philosophy is: understand, know the ‘how' and ‘why', and study with a pen in hand."
Besides teaching, Falzone is currently on the committee for the Gateway Sciences Initiative, a new project that is working to improve the structure of introductory-level science courses at Hopkins. Approved earlier this year in May, the initiative has received $800,000 to fund the implementation of professors' ideas to help science learning. Falzone is currently working on proposals that will affect organic chemistry classes, possibly as soon as next semester. The goal of such modifications to classes would be to better accommodate the variety of students taking the course, such as offering a more biology-focused section for pre-med students. Smaller class sizes would potentially be another benefit of such changes.
Falzone understands the pressures put on the student community at Hopkins and encourages the future doctors, engineers, lawyers and politicians to reach out into different departments and enjoy the subjects that they will not be able to study in the future.
"Some students really try to do too much," Falzone said. "They give a short shift to research because they're busy volunteering, they're busy shadowing, and in my opinion that gets pushed a little too much. You need to enjoy college because it's the one time you're going to take anything you really want to take. Once you start professional school, Shakespeare is out of the question, unless you're going to become a Shakespearean scholar."
Falzone has done his fair share of crossing boundaries into the world outside of chemistry. Besides organic chemistry and Shakespeare, Falzone fills his spare time with running, cooking and woodworking. If you ask, he would be more than happy to give you a cookbook recommendation.
Falzone insists that the idea of exploring new territory should resonate beyond the walls of the classroom. After graduating college, people should see the world and gain an international perspective before settling in on years of medical school or starting to take on a full-time job.
"I would tell everyone, after you've done all the things you'll need to make you a good applicant [for graduate or professional school], to take a year to travel. You don't have time to travel once you start your job, and I think medical students particularly should take a gap year. I really think the year off recharges the batteries, and I would have loved to have just backpacked around Europe," Falzone said.
