Dr. John R. Townsend, Professor of Chemistry at the West Chester University of Pennsylvania, earned his B.A. in Chemistry as well as the Approved Program for Teacher Certification in Chemistry at the University of Delaware. After a career teaching high school mathematics and science, he earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in biophysical chemistry at Cornell University, where he also received the DuPont Teaching Award for his work as a teaching assistant. After teaching at Bloomsburg University, he joined the faculty at West Chester University, where he coordinates the chemistry education program for prospective high school teachers and the general chemistry lecture program for science majors.

Dr. Townsend has been the university supervisor for more than 60 prospective high school chemistry teachers during their student teaching semester. His research interests are in the fields of biochemistry and chemical education. It focused on the formation and hydrolysis of phosphodiester bonds between nucleosides in RNA.