2025 Award Winner - ACS Division of Chemical Education Midwest Award for Excellence in High School Teaching in Memory of John E. Bauman Jr.

Collin Mayhan currently teaches Physics, Chemistry, and Independent Research at Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City, Missouri. He attended the University of Missouri from 2005 to 2014. Initially a music education major, he changed his major several times before settling on chemistry. Collin received both his BS (2009) and PhD (2014) in Chemistry from the University of Missouri. Throughout his undergraduate and graduate studies, he had many outstanding professors, including Carol Deakyne, his PhD advisor; John Adams, a frequent collaborator; Mike Greelief; and Tommy Sewell. Inspired by their teaching, he has adapted, or shamelessly stolen, some of the outstanding teaching practices observed in these classes. While studying at Mizzou, Collin met and married his wife, Erin, with whom he has now shared 15 wonderful years, welcomed his first child, and found time on his bike as a space for self-reflection.

Collin began teaching at Helias in 2014 and did not participate in any research collaborations until 2018, when Carol Deakyne and former group member Harshita Kumari contacted him about finishing some calculations. This was the beginning of what became a more permanent collaboration in 2020, during the first month of the pandemic. In 2022, Collin pitched the idea of offering a research class for exceptional students and the inaugural course started in the 2022-23 academic year. Since then, 14 students have collaborated with University of Missouri faculty, including Kurt Brorsen, Tommy Sewell, Heather Hennkens, Mike Harmata, John Adams, and Carol Deakyne and University of Cincinnati, College of Pharmacy faculty Harshita Kumari. Six of these students have presented 8 posters at the 2023-2025 National ACS Spring meetings. All of these students are now pursuing STEM majors at universities across the country. Three of these, Karoline Klebba, Claire Cassmeyer, and Emily Rodriguez, are co-authors in several peer-reviewed publications in journals such as Scientific Reports, Crystal Growth & Design, and Nanoscale Advances, with a first-author article forthcoming for Klebba.

Collin credits his parents, Mark and Ronda, and his sister, Maggie, for being a constant source of support. His leadership and professional drive were shaped by the example set by his father. He feels fortunate to educate outstanding students and feels confident that the next generation of science will be in good hands. He resides in Hartsburg, Missouri with his wife Erin and their 3 sons - Levi, Luke, and Avett. His professional and personal life could be best classified as a fifth-order elementary reaction.