Richard W. Schaeffer, Ph.D.

Professor Schaeffer is originally from Ephrata, Pennsylvania, where he discovered what has become a lifelong passion for baseball and the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. His undergraduate degree is from Messiah College where he studied chemistry and computer science and played varsity baseball for four years. Following college, he worked for over three years as an analytical chemist at a commercial laboratory in Harrisburg.  Dr. Schaeffer then entered graduate school at Temple University in Philadelphia and completed his Ph.D. in chemistry with a dissertation in solid-state inorganic chemistry.  He then taught and conducted research with undergraduates for eight years at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA and two years at Kutztown University in Kutztown, PA.  Professor Schaeffer fulfilled a career dream by joining the faculty at Messiah College in 2004.  He has mentored over seventy undergraduate research students and published twenty-five peer-reviewed journal articles. 

• B.A. Chemistry major, Computer Science minor (Messiah College)
• Ph.D. Chemistry (Temple University)

• General Chemistry I, CHEM105 (lecture and lab)
• General Chemistry II, CHEM106 (lecture and lab)
• Chemical Analysis I, CHEM221 (lecture and lab)
• Chemical Analysis II, CHEM321 (lecture and lab)
• Environmental Chemistry, CHEM340 (lecture and lab)
• Natural Science Capstone, CHEM/BIOL495
• Chemistry Senior Seminar, CHEM490
• Chemistry Junior Seminar, CHEM390
• Research Methods, CHEM/BIOL393
• Undergraduate Research (mentoring), CHEM422

Analytical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry, Philosophy of Science, Science-Theology Issues, synthesis and characterization of inorganic materials, fate and speciation of substances in the environment