
Hannah Sevian
Professor Emerita of Chemistry
Biography
Hannah Sevian is professor emerita of chemistry at 91视频, where she served from 2001 to 2025. Her research spans chemistry education, spectroscopy, statistical mechanics, and materials science. Her career includes teaching high school and college, serving as an NSF program officer, associate provost, and Dean of STEM. In 2026-27, she is a Fulbright Scholar at Sir Arthur Lewis Community College in Saint Lucia, preparing faculty, staff, and students for an AI-reliant workforce.
Area of Expertise
Chemistry Education
STEM Education
Degrees
B.S., Chemical Engineering
B.A., Chemistry
M.A. and M.Phil., Chemical Physics
Ph.D., Physical Chemistry
Graduate Certificate, Applied Data Science
Professional Publications & Contributions
- Sevian, H., T. D. King-Meadows, K. Caushi, T. Kakhoidze, and J. M. Karch. JACS Au 3, no. 10 (October 2023): 2715–35.
- Caspari-Gnann, I., and H. Sevian. Teaching and Teacher Education 112 (April 2022): 15.
- Karch, J. M., and H. Sevian. Chemistry Education Research and Practice 23, no. 1 (January 2022): 55–77.
- Keen, C., and H. Sevian. Chemistry Education Research and Practice 23, no. 1 (January 2022): 12–37.
- Abell, T. N., and H. Sevian. Journal of Chemical Education 98, no. 9 (September 2021): 2799–2808.
- Caushi, K., H. Sevian, and V. Talanquer. Journal of Chemical Education 98, no. 12 (December 2021): 3714–22.
- Dini, Vesal, Hannah Sevian, Klaudja Caushi, and Raúl Orduña Picón. Science Education 104, no. 2 (2020): 290-325.
- Keen, Clarissa, Steven Couture, Nayer Abd El Meseh, and Hannah Sevian. Journal of Chemical Education 97, no. 4 (2020): 934-942.
- Murray, Stephanie A., Robert Huie, Rebecca Lewis, Scott Balicki, Michael Clinchot, Gregory Banks, Vicente Talanquer, and Hannah Sevian. Journal of Chemical Education (2020).
- Karch, Jessica M., Josibel C. García Valles, and Hannah Sevian. Journal of Chemical Education (2019).
- Aguiar, Orlando, Hannah Sevian, and Charbel N. El-Hani. Science & Education 27, no. 9-10 (2018): 863-893.
- Ngai, Courtney, and Hannah Sevian. CBE—Life Sciences Education 17, no. 4 (2018): ar58, 1-12.
- Sevian, Hannah, and Steven Couture. Chemistry Education Research and Practice (2018).
- Clinchot, Michael, Courtney Ngai, Robert Huie, Vicente Talanquer, Jennifer Lambertz, Gregory Banks, Melissa Weinrich, Rebecca Lewis, Pamela Pelletier, and Hannah Sevian. The Science Teacher 84, no. 3 (2017): 69-75.
- Ngai, Courtney, and Hannah Sevian. Journal of Chemical Education 94, no. 2 (2017): 137-148.
- Weinrich, M. L., and H. Sevian. Chemistry Education Research and Practice 18, no. 1 (2017): 169-190.
- Banks, Gregory, Michael Clinchot, Steven Cullipher, Robert Huie, Jennifer Lambertz, Rebecca Lewis, Courtney Ngai et al. Journal of Chemical Education 92, no. 10 (2015): 1610-1618.
- Cullipher, Steven, and Hannah Sevian. Journal of Chemical Education 92, no. 12 (2015): 1996-2005.
- Stains, Marilyne, and Hannah Sevian. Research in Science Education 45, no. 6 (2015): 807-840.
- Sevian, Hannah, and Vicente Talanquer. Chemistry Education Research and Practice 15, no. 1 (2014): 10-23.
Additional Information
Dr. Sevian’s chemistry research for over two decades at 91视频 focused on chemistry learning that is proactively inclusive, recognizes and builds on students’ cultural wealth and knowledge, and creates opportunities for learning so that students take an active role in connecting school to their lived worlds. Her ongoing research in retirement continues to focus on empowering STEM students, with focus now shifted to harnessing AI capabilities. During August 2026 through February 2027, she serves as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar at Sir Arthur Lewis Community College in Saint Lucia, offering professional development for faculty and staff to support the preparation students in tertiary education while integrating AI competencies for workforce readiness, and conducting research on how institutions can support STEM faculty and staff to develop AI expertise and pedagogical skills.
Across Dr. Sevian's career, her development of the chemical thinking framework – a disciplinary nature of science theory that characterizes chemistry as the pursuit of six questions that are unique to chemistry – with collaborator Vicente Talanquer was tightly connected to her teaching of chemistry, which centered on strengthening students’ capabilities in chemical thinking, building on the relevance of chemistry in their careers and lives. In research, she is known for studying how students develop chemical thinking across the decade from secondary to tertiary chemistry, how a focus on green chemistry influences students’ learning of chemistry, and how scientists and teachers develop responsive classroom assessment practices that promote students’ meaning making in chemistry. Her research has been published in chemistry, chemistry education, and science education journals and books. Innovation products were also developed through this research:
- The Assessing for Change in Chemical Thinking (ACCT) program is an 8-session course of study meant to be led by experienced chemistry teachers for their peers. It refocuses and enhances middle and high school teachers’ abilities to notice, interpret, and respond to students’ chemical ideas through strengthened formative assessment practices. The ACCT program resulted from a long-term NSF-funded collaboration with secondary chemistry teachers in Boston Public Schools and the BPS Science Department. The professional learning program was piloted nationally and all resources are freely available on the American Chemical Society’s ChemEd Xchange website at .
- An asset-based and culturally responsive supplemental chemistry course was developed by Dr. Sevian for students with higher likelihood of DFW outcomes in general chemistry. The development and study of impacts of this course were supported by NSF. Participation in the asset-based course has been demonstrated to close equity gaps in learning outcomes in General Chemistry 1 when coupled with use of the chemical thinking curriculum in the lecture course. Results of the study and the full curriculum and instructional resources for the asset-based supplemental chemistry course are available via an in 2023.