About
Fengdan (Sophena) grew up in China. She is an avid runner with a great enthusiasm for badminton, and she is the founder of the GU Badminton Club, which has enhanced her interactions with students.
Fengdan's commitment to impacting students extends well beyond the classroom. She strives to be approachable and encourages students to visit her office and speak with her at any time.
Recognizing that many international students at GU are not typically athletes, she aims to offer them opportunities to engage in sports and form new friendships, similar to her own experiences in school. "I want to motivate them to care about their health. I don’t want students to finish their homework only to play video games or watch TV shows. I want them to get involved on campus and build meaningful connections.”
Education
Fengdan (Sophena) received her Bachelor's degree in Material Chemistry Science in China. Driven by a desire to further her education, she came to the United States in 2016 to pursue a Ph.D. in the photochemistry program at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. Her research focused on utilizing Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) to study the molecular dynamics of nano silicon compounds. To further her passion for science education, she earned a Master of Science Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she gained advanced pedagogical skills in teaching chemistry.
Awards & Publications
Fengdan is the recipient of the “Improving Science Pedagogy Grant ” from the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC).
Fengdan Zhao. (Ohio Link 2022) Investigation of Structured Fluid Properties at the MolecularLevel: Insight from Electron Paramagnetic Resonance( EPR) Spin Probes.
Malcolm D.E. Forbes, Fengdan Zhao. Radical–Triplet Pair Interactions: New Tools for Mechanistic Photochemistry, Pacifichem 2020 Congress, ID: 3448813.
Fengdan Zhao, Xin Zhang. Using ion-exchange method of Zeolite to extract potassium from seawater, 2016, China.
