Rate My Professor John DiVincenzo

John DiVincenzo is a Professor of Chemistry at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), having joined the Department of Chemistry in 1996 as an Assistant Professor (1996-2001), advancing to Associate Professor (2001-2007), and full Professor since 2007. He was selected as MTSU Honors Faculty in 2017. Prior to his faculty appointment, he served as a Research Assistant in Plant and Soil Sciences and Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Delaware. DiVincenzo holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Soil Chemistry from the University of Delaware (1996), with dissertation "Slow Sorption Kinetics of Pentachlorophenol on Soil" advised by D.L. Sparks; an M.S. in Environmental Engineering (1993), thesis "The Effects of an Anionic Surfactant and a Cationic Polyelectrolyte on the Sorption-Desorption of 1,2,4-Trichlorobenzene on Soil"; and a B.A. in Biological Sciences (1987).

His research focuses on environmental chemistry, including pervious concrete quality studies for removing urban stormwater contaminants such as nutrients, heavy metals, organics, and petroleum products; adsorption onto fly ash-amended pervious concrete; impacts of pesticides and urbanization on soil microbial communities and water quality; fate and sorption of contaminants like pentachlorophenol and pentobarbital in soil-water systems; and method development for analyzing organic pollutants using solid-phase extraction and GC-MS. Key publications include "Fly ash amended pervious concrete: a laboratory study on the removal potential for inorganic constituents" (Otter et al., International Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2016), "Sorption of the neutral and charged forms of pentachlorophenol on soil: Evidence for different mechanisms" (DiVincenzo and Sparks, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 2001), "Slow sorption kinetics of pentachlorophenol on soil: Concentration effects" (DiVincenzo and Sparks, Environmental Science & Technology, 1997), "Pervious and impervious urban stormwater runoff in a rapidly urbanizing region: Occurrence of fluoranthene and pyrene" (James et al., Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 2010), and "Sorption-desorption of 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene on soil: Anionic surfactant and cationic polyelectrolyte effects" (DiVincenzo and Dentel, Journal of Environmental Quality, 1996). Awards include MTSU NSF-funded FirstStep Research Award (2015), MTSU NTO Professor Making a Difference (2014), MTSU Special Projects Foundation Award (2008), and Northeastern Branch American Society of Agronomy Graduate Student Award (1996). He has received MTSU Faculty Research Grants and mentors students via ChemSTAR.