Bill Vining graduated from SUNY Oneonta in 1981 and earned his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1985, working on the modification of electrode surfaces with polymer-bound redox catalysts. After three years working in industry for S.C. Johnson and Son (Johnson Wax) in Racine, Wisconsin, he became an assistant professor of inorganic chemistry at Hartwick College and eventually Department Chair. It was here that Bill started working on educational software, first creating the set of simulations called Chemland. This led to work with Dr. John Kotz on the first General Chemistry CD-ROM, and a distance learning course produced with Archipelago Productions. This work led to a move to the University of Massachusetts where he served as Director of General Chemistry, which serves 1,400 students every semester. He was awarded the University of Massachusetts Distinguished Teaching Award in 1999 and the UMass College of Natural Sciences Outstanding Teacher Award in 2003. At UMass, he also ran a research group dedicated to developing interactive educational software, which included 15 professionals, graduate students, undergraduates, post-doctoral students, programmers, and artists. After nine years at UMass, Bill decided to move back to a primarily undergraduate institution and arrived at SUNY Oneonta, where he now works with undergraduates, Cow Town Productions, and the UMass OWL team.
