Tim Paschkewitz became involved in the Graduate Student Senate (GSS) at the University of Iowa purely for the social benefit of interacting with students across campus. To his surprise, the GSS experience was so much more than simply expanding his social network of friends and colleagues.

“Involvement in Graduate Student Senate provided a fine blend of experiences that enhanced my tenure at the University of Iowa in personal, social, and professional ways,” Paschkewitz says. “Personally, I grew in character.  I learned to be a leader in a complicated system such as a large decentralized university.  I gained personal experience with University administration, which taught me the difficulty and struggle involved in funding higher education.

“Socially, I found an outlet in which to really experience diversity and combat the pressure to remain isolated in one's program.”

Paschkewitz, who earned his Ph.D. in chemistry in May 2012, conducted his research in the Leddy Lab. His mentor was Johna Leddy, professor of chemistry, and his dissertation project outlines a system that sustainably produces ammonia from blue-green algae attached to the surface of an electrode.

However, Paschkewitz quickly realized that the graduate student experience didn’t begin and end in the Chemistry Building.

“Great minds come in many forms and from every corner of civilization,” Paschkewitz says. “The arts and sciences share very unstructured and important threads of connection however subtle they may be.  I learned the artist's painting is not very different from the mathematician's proof; in context, both are beautifully logical.

“A chemist's analysis and characterization of chemical system electron flow is not entirely distinct from that of a sociologist's survey data or from a neurobiologist's artificial neural network.  The service, social, and leadership opportunities afforded by my involvement on campus and outside my department were endless and have left a lasting impression on me.”

Paschkewitz was a valuable member of GSS. The Hartland, Wis., native, served as GSS president and co-chair of the GSS Travel Awards and Jakobsen Conference committees. He also was the 2009-10 budget director of the Executive Council for Graduate and Professional Students.

In 2010, Paschkewitz received the prestigious Hancher-Finkbine Medallion for his exemplary leadership, learning, and loyalty at the University of Iowa.

“Professionally, I learned how to network in GSS.  I was ready, capable, and successful. I went to a chemistry conference and networked there from beginning to end,” Paschkewitz says. “I learned how to respect and simultaneously work with administrators and the hierarchy of complicated systems.  My research provided this opportunity in the physical world, and GSS provided this opportunity in the professional world.”

Weeks after graduation, Paschkewitz began his professional career as an electroanalytical sales scientist at Pine Research Instrumentation in Durham, N.C. Pine Research Instrumentation designs and manufactures electroanalytical instrumentation, and also provides technical and customer support to people around the world.

His UI experience prepared Paschkewitz for the job market.

“The education without boundary approach to my experience at Iowa prepared me for interacting with chemists from any background and living anywhere,” Paschkewitz says. “The skills I gained at Iowa through my involvement in GSS and other organizations, coupled with my training in electrochemistry under Dr. Leddy, created an unstoppable synergy for productivity.”