I woke up this morning and saw an email from empower@fiu.edu. I was pleasantly surprised that I was being congratulated for reaching an important milestone at FIU, the 40 year service anniversary. Forty years ago today I accepted the position of assistant professor of chemistry. I am surprised when I realize I was only 26 at the time. Time does fly!
My job then was very simple. I would teach one full class of CHM 1045, in OE 134, and one class of a senior level course, CHM 4610, Advanced Inorganic Chemistry. Additionally, I would have to perform some yet to be identified service for the department. The department has changed since then. Only one other faculty member remains from that time. There was no graduate program, no Ph.D. program, A lot has happenned since then.
I joined in 1986, a little bit after the Challenger shuttle crashed. I remember being at the UM and professor Carl Hoff letting me know it had exploded as I was taking a very important melting point in the laboratory. This was in January of At the time I had no idea where I would be for the next year. I had not even applied for a position yet. On March 10, 1986, Elena was born. Elena is my second daughter in age. Cristina was at home. She was in school. She was three and and a half years old and we had at a preschool in West Miami. I am surprised that both of those things occurred, not simultaneously but close to each other. I have always marveled at how my brain can separate things like that. I had never even associated those things until I started writing this.
I remember I was actively thinking about what to do with my degree. It is not as if I had any offers.
I was the first faculty member hired by the chemistry department at FIU. It had just been created. Prior to that it was known as the Department of Physical Sciences and was a combination of Chemistry, Physics and Geology. The Department of Biological Sciences was made up of Biological Sciences and various other subdivisions which I do not remember right away.
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