Leroy E. Laverman is a senior lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He earned a B.S. in Chemistry from Washington State University and received his Ph.D. from U.C. Santa Barbara where he worked on ligand exchange reaction mechanisms in metalloporphyrins. He has been teaching chemistry at UCSB since 2000 and continues to instruct students in general chemistry and honors level courses.