(Posted September 12, 2011)

Peter Baran, associate professor of chemistry, spent his sabbatical teaching in the Czech Republic, Germany and China.
Peter Baran, associate professor of chemistry, spent his sabbatical teaching in the Czech Republic, Germany and China.

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- The talk by Peter Baran, associate professor of chemistry at Juniata College, scheduled for 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 21, in Neff Lecture Hall in the von Liebig Center for Science on the Juniata campus, has been rescheduled due to the Sept. 21 declaration of Mountain Day, Juniata's traditional surprise holiday occuring every fall semester.

Baran has rescheduled his talk on how life on a central Pennsylvania college campus differs from campuses in China and Europe in the lecture "The Quest for 'Even More' Cultural Diversity," at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 28, in Neff Lecture Hall.

The lecture is free and open to the public. The lecture is part of the Bookend Seminar Lecture series, which features afternoon lectures each month by Juniata College faculty.

Baran, who worked at a Slovakian university and in Slovakian industry as a chemist before immigrating first to Puerto Rico and then to Juniata College, spent the entire 2010-2011 academic year overseas as he taught at Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic in fall semester and in China spring semester. In Chitf, Baran taught chemistry courses at Zhengzhu University in Zhengzhu, China.

"I will be talking about how my wife, Lubi, and I have lived in five different cultural settings during our marriage and how these new cultures compare," Baran says.

"I will be talking about how my wife, Lubi, and I have lived in five different cultural settings during our marriage and how these new cultures compare."

Peter Baran, associate professor of chemistry

Baran will compare the educational systems at Juniata with the students he taught in the Czech Republic and China. He also will outline several research projects he worked on at the Czech University and research at the University of Erlangen-Nuremburg, in Erlangen, Germany.

He joined the Juniata faculty in 2004, after working at several academic positions at the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras.

Baran earned a bachelor's degree in 1985 at Slovak Technical University in Bratislava, Slovakia. He went on to earn the equivalent of a master's degree in physical and analytical chemistry in 1985. He earned a doctoral degree in inorganic chemistry from Slovak Technical University in 1992.

He has studied internationally in Germany, Crete and Puerto Rico. His research interests include chemical synthesis, X-ray crystallography, spectroscopy and magnetochemistry. He has had a variety of professional papers and articles published in publications such as the "Journal of Organic Chemistry," the "Journal of Chemical Crystallography," "Polyhedron" and the "Journal of the American Chemical Society."

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.