Ben Burlingham received a B.S. in biochemistry at Grove City College in 1996. After serving as the program director of a Christian youth camp for one year, he started graduate work in organic chemistry at Indiana University. Under the direction of Prof. Ted Widlanski, he conducted research in the synthesis of novel enzyme inhibitors. After completing the Ph.D. in 2002, Dr. Burlingham became Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Mount Union, where he received tenure in 2008. He served as visiting professor at IU for a number of summer sessions, and now serves as teaching faculty at IU fulltime.
Dr. Burlingham's teaching interests span general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry. He has spent a significant amount of time in the development of guided-inquiry labs in organic chemistry. Ben is especially interested in developing two cycle curricular approaches for organic chemistry, which might better serve students in this time of substantial curricular change being proposed by groups such as the Association of American Medical Colleges.