James Donovan, Professor of Natural Sciences, Director of Hutchins Graduate Institute

Donovan has been a member of the Shimer faculty since 1999.  At Shimer, Donovan teaches primarily in the Natural Sciences, but also teaches in the

Social Sciences and is assigned to the graduate Teaching Fellows Program. Before joining the Shimer faculty, he was a Senior Research Scientist and President of the ADD Technical Advisory Boared at Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago.  He holds three patents and is the author of numerous scientific articles in journals such as Nature, PNAS, and Journal of Biological Chemistry.

“When I finally learned about Shimer's curriculum, its Socratic style of teaching, its democratic ethos, and its intellectual rigor, I immediately applied for a position, quit my old job, and have lived happily ever after.”—James Donovan

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Biophysics and Theoretical Biology, University of Chicago, 1979
B.S., Chemistry, University of Notre Dame, 1975

RECENT ELECTIVES AND TUTORIALS TAUGHT

Foundations of Science Courses for High School Teachers
Survey of Chaos Theory
Statistics
Calculus
General Chemistry and Lab
Physics of Music and Sound
Origins: Religious and Scientific Stories of Who We Are and How We Got Here

AREAS OF INTEREST/SPECIALIZATION

Quantum Cosmology; article in preparation “The Minimum Acceleration Hypothesis: Quantum Mechanics implies an Absence of Dark Matter.”

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Donovan, JJ. 2001. Teaching Science Historically Instead of Teaching the History of Science. in The Wider World of Core Texts and Courses, A. Brunello, M. Chiariello, and J.S. Lee, Eds., Association for Core Texts and Courses 2001, pp 85-89

Tarcha P, Misun D, Finley D, Wong M, and Donovan JJ. 1991. Synthesis, analysis and immunodiagnostic applications of poly(pyrrole) latex and its derivatives  in Polymer Latexes: Preparation, Characterization and Applications, E.S. Daniels, E.D. Sudol, and M.S. El-Aasser, Eds., ACS Symposium Series 492, p. 347- 367

Shiver JW; Donovan JJ.  1987.  Interactions of diphtheria toxin with lipid vesicles: determinants of ion channel formation.  Biochim Biophys Acta  903 p48-55  

Shiver JW; Dankert JR; Donovan JJ; Esser AF.  1986.  The  ninth component of human complement (C9). Functional activity of the B fragment. J Biol Chem 261 p9629-36 

Donovan JJ; Simon MI; Montal M.  1982.  Insertion of  diphtheria  toxin into and across membranes: role of phosphoinositide asymmetry.  Nature 298  p669-72 

Donovan JJ; Simon MI; Draper RK; Montal M.  1981. Diphtheria toxin forms transmembrane channels in planar lipid bilayers.  Proc Natl Acad Sci (USA) 78 p172-6 

Donovan JJ; Latorre R.  1979.  Inactivation  of the alamethicin-induced conductance caused by quaternary ammonium ions and local anesthetics.  J Gen Physiol 73 p425-51

PATENTS

Immunoassay Using Microparticle Neutralization

Indicator Reagents, Diagnostic Assays and Test Kits Employing Organic Polymer Latex Particles

Immunoassay With Built-in Confirmation