Daniel King, PhD, has been appointed Interim Associate Dean of Graduate Education. An associate professor of chemistry, King received his PhD in Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry from the University of Miami in 1997 and joined Drexel’s Department of Chemistry in 2002. He has focused his research on the assessment of active learning methods and technology in chemistry courses, as well as the incorporation of environmental data into chemistry classroom models and the development of hands-on activities.

This work has generated funding from the National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Henry Luce Foundation and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, among others. King has authored over 25 peer-reviewed publications or book chapters and delivered over 120 presentations.

He has received numerous awards recognizing his teaching and mentorship, including the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2016, Drexel’s most prestigious award given to full-time faculty members for teaching, and the Allen Rothwarf Award for Teaching Excellence in 2007. In 2017, he was recognized as Student Organization Advisor of the Year, a Student Life Impact Award. His previous appointments have included positions as secretary of the American Chemical Society’s Division of Chemical Education from 2017 to 2019, as an associate member of the ACS Committee on Education from 2018 to 2019, and as faculty fellow for the Drexel Center for Academic Excellence from 2009 to 2016.

Daniel Marenda, PhD, has been appointed Associate Dean of Research. Marenda is a scholar of developmental neurobiology, an associate professor of biology and an associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy in Drexel University’s College of Medicine. He received his PhD in Biological Sciences from Syracuse University in 2003 and joined Drexel’s Department of Biology in 2008. His research program is focused on understanding how genes regulate neural development, utilizing the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as an in-vivo model.

In 2014, he co-authored a publication identifying erythritol as a human-safe insecticide — innovative work that resulted in a U.S. patent and media coverage by outlets like New York Magazine, Yahoo! News, Salon and Science magazine.

Marenda has published over 30 scientific articles and received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Pennsylvania Department of Public Health, the Pitt Hopkins Research Foundation and the University of Pennsylvania, among others, generating more than $4 million in total grant support. His previous appointments have included positions as director of Drexel’s biology graduate program from 2014 to 2017, and as a program director in the Directorate for Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation from 2017 to 2019. His duties at the NSF included managing a $6.5 million annual budget aimed at supporting the next generation of scientists, as well as identifying bold, new models for STEM graduate training as a member of the NSF’s Research Traineeship Steering Committee. Marenda received the College’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2013.