IU Chemistry Faculty Eric Bloch, Amar Flood, and Jessica Hollenbeck Receive the 2025 Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award

Congratulations to Professors Eric Bloch, Amar Flood, and Jessica Hollenbeck on being selected for the 2025 Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award. This award emphasizes excellence in classroom teaching and outstanding course development. The Department of Chemistry nominates awardees based on the high quality of their instruction and positive impact on student learning.

Prof. Eric D. Bloch, Veronica Siedle Associate Professor of Chemistry, was born in Brownsville, Wisconsin, in 1983. After attending the University of Wisconsin-Fond du Lac for two years, he received his B. S. in Chemistry from UW-Milwaukee in 2008 and his Ph. D. in Chemistry from the University of California-Berkeley in 2014. Following postdoctoral work at Harvard University, he joined the faculty at the University of Delaware in 2016. He moved to the Indiana University Department of Chemistry in 2023. His research involves the design, synthesis, and characterization of porous molecular materials and porous salts for applications ranging from energy storage to human health.

Prof. Bloch’s efforts in developing C430 (Inorganic Chemistry) and C637 (Physical Methods in Structural Chemistry), providing an engaging experience for students, particularly for those with interest in both materials and inorganic chemistry, were of particular note in his nomination for this award.

Prof. Amar Flood, Professor of Chemistry, received his B. Sc. with 1st Class Honors in 1996 and his Ph. D. in 2001 from the University of Otago with Professor Keith C. Gordon. He was a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles, from 2002 to 2005 with Sir Fraser Stoddart. To date, he has authored over 180 journal articles, eight book chapters and has made more than 200 invited and contributed presentations at national and international conferences in the field of supramolecular chemistry. He has served on the organizing committee for three international conferences including the 2013 International Symposium on Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry (ISMSC) and the 2017 GRC on Artificial Molecular Switches and Motors. He received Indiana University Trustees Teaching Awards in 2008, 2010, and 2025, an NSF CAREER Award in 2009, was a 2010 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, the Award for Excellence in Physical Organic Chemistry by Wiley, the inaugural Cram Lehn Pedersen Award in Supramolecular Chemistry for 2011, the American Chemical Society R.A. Glenn Award in 2022, and was elected as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow in 2024. He was the James F. Jackson Professor 2014-2022 and Luther Dana Waterman Professor 2015-2020.

Prof. Flood’s efforts regarding the integration of cyanostar synthesis into the C344 CURE lab and his consistent strong positive feedback received from students within his courses were of particular note in his nomination for this award.

Dr. Jessica Hollenbeck, Senior Lecturer, received a B. S. degree from the University of Michigan where she completed an Honors thesis with Prof. Peter Toogood on the synthesis of the natural product althiomycin. She attended graduate school at Indiana University working with Prof. Martha Oakley in the Department of Chemistry. Her Ph. D. dissertation was on the design and synthesis of a class of proteins called antiparallel coiled coils. During graduate school, Dr. Hollenbeck became interested in the growing field of chemical biology. This led her to the University of Wisconsin where she worked as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof. Laura Kiessling. In Prof. Kiessling’s lab, she worked on a team studying synthetic polymers designed to control signal transduction pathways in B cells. Dr. Hollenbeck began her independent career at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX where she taught organic chemistry and biochemistry and did research with undergraduate students using ankyrin repeat proteins as multivalent ligand scaffolds. Since returning to IU in 2021, she has focused on improving outcomes in undergraduate biochemistry courses using active learning strategies tailored to large enrollment classes.

Dr. Hollenbeck’s sustained efforts in teaching and the consistent positive feedback received from her students were of particular note in her nomination for this award.