John obtained his PhD in organic chemistry from Virginia Commonwealth University. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow in pharmacology at the Medical College of Virginia before moving to Hawaii to become a tenured professor at Leeward Community College where his interests turned to science education and the development of distance learning programs as well as student-centered learning curricula. In addition to writing Conceptual Chemistry, John is also the chemistry and astronomy coauthor of the college and high school editions of Conceptual Physical Science and Conceptual Integrated Science with physicist Paul Hewitt and others. John is currently founder and CEO of Conceptual Academy.