After completing my doctoral work at the University of Maryland, I had the honor of being invited to work at Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science (MPI) on a postdoctoral fellowship in the history and philosophy of science in the research group of Ursula Klein. I work on the concept of observation in chemistry, and am making progress on several writing projects centered on the concept of observation in science and the question of exactly what it is about the world that we observe. Specifically, I am interested in what we can know by seeing an image of an entity, and how this contrasts with what we can know from observing it in some other way, e.g., by observing its effects spectroscopically.

In the summer of 2001, much to my pleasure, I was able to join the faculty of the philosophy department at UAB, where I now teach jointly in the philosophy department and at the Center for Ethics and Values in Science, as well as develop web-based methods for learning the ideas presented in Responsible Conduct of Research courses.

Teaching Responsible Conduct of Research: Scientific Integrity

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Publications

"The Activity of MMTS Modified Creatine Kinase Is Due to the Regeneration of Free Thiol at the Active Site", L. Hou, S.H. Vollmer, B.B.A., 1205, 83-88 (1994).

* "Guanosine 5'-O[S-4-bromo-2,3,dioxobutyl)]Thiophosphate and Adenosine 5'-O[S-4-bromo-2,3,dioxobutyl)]Thiophosphate; New Nucleotide Affinity Labels Which React with Rabbit Muscle Pyruvate Kinase", S.H. Vollmer and R.F. Colman, J. Biol. Chem., 269, 8282-8090, (1993).

* "Cysteinyl Peptides Labeled by Dibromobutanedione in Reaction with Rabbit Muscle Pyruvate Kinase", S.H. Vollmer and R.F. Colman, Protein Science, 1, 678-687 (1992).

* "Cysteinyl Peptides of Rabbit Muscle Pyruvate Kinase Labelled by the Affinity Label 8-[(4-Bromo-2,3-dioxobutyl)thio]adenosine 5'-Triphosphate", S.H. Vollmer and R.F. Colman, Biochem., 29, 2495-2501 (1991).

* "Affinity Labeling of Adenine Nucleotide Sites in Enzymes", R.F. Colman, J. M. Bailey, D.L. Decamp, Y-C. Huang, S.H. Vollmer, Biological Actions of Extracellular ATP; G.R. Dubyak & J.S. Fedan, ed.; Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 603., pp. 417-426 (1990).

* "Identification of the Site of Acetyl-S-Enzyme Formation on Avian Liver Mitochondrial 3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA Synthase", S.H. Vollmer, L.M. Mende-Mueller, and H.M. Miziorko, Biochem., 27, 4288-4292 (1988).

* "Crystal Structure of the General Acyl-CoA Dehydrogenase", J.J. Kim and S.H. Vollmer, 13th International Congress of Biochemistry, August 25-30, 1985, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, No. Tu-241, p.291 (1985).

* "Crystallization and Preliminary X-ray Data for the General Acyl-CoA Dehydrogenase", J.P. Kim, S.H. Vollmer, and F.E. Frerman, JBC, 259, 3318-3319 (1984).

* "Synthesis and Properties of a New Class of Highly Reactive Trivalent Actinide Organometallic Compounds. Derivatives of Bis(pentamethylcyclopentadienyl uranium(III)", P.J. Fagan, J.M. Manriquez, T.J. Marks, C.S. Day, S.H. Vollmer, and V.W. Day, Organometallics, 1, 170-180 (1982).

* "Non-classical Activation of Carbon Monoxide by Organoactinides", T.J. Marks, J.M. Manriquez, P.J. Fagan, V.W. Day, C.S. Day, and S.H. Vollmer, Lanthanide and Actinide Chemistry and Spectroscopy, ACS Symposium Series; Edelstein, ed.; American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., pp. 3-29 (1980).

* "Insertion of Carbon Monoxide into Metal-nitrogen Bonds. Synthesis, Chemistry, Structure, and Structural Design of Bis(pentamethylcyclopentadienyl) Organoactinide Dihaptocarbamoyls", P.J. Fagan, J.M. Manriquez,, S.H. Vollmer, C.S. Day, V.W. Day, and T.J. Marks, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 103, 2206-2220 (1981).

* "Carbon Monoxide Activation by f-Element Organometallics. An Unusually Distorted, Carbenelike Dihaptoacyl and CO Tetramerization", P.J. Fagan, J.M. Manriquez, T.J. Marks, V.W. Day, S.H. Vollmer, and C.S. Day, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 102, 5393, (1980).

* "Pentamethylcyclopentadienyl Organoactinides. Trivalent Uranium Organometallic Chemistry and the Unusual Structure of Bis(pentamethylcyclopentadienyl)uranium Monochloride", J.M. Manriquez, P.J. Fagan, T.J. Marks, S.H. Vollmer, C.S. Day, V.W. Day, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 101, 5075 (1979).

* "Early Pollen Wall of the Yellow Pond Lily", J.J. Flynn and S.H. Vollmer, J. Cell Biol., 55, 77a (1972).