One of the real joys of teaching is that you can make a huge difference to other people. Perhaps the greatest reward is when former students tell you how much influence you have had upon them. I certainly hold several of my former teachers (both from school and university) in very high regard. However it is not only in the formative years that you come across people who provide such inspiration. Throughout my own working life I have also come across a few people who have influenced me greatly. One of these sadly died earlier this week and he did so much for IB Chemistry and had such a positive effect on the way that I act and think that I would like to honour him.

Arden Zipp was the Distinguished Teaching Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at SUNY, Cortland. I first met Arden in the 1980s when we worked together on the IB Applied Chemistry programme.  Arden went on to become the Chief Examiner for IB Applied Chemistry for many years and then followed that with a stint as the Chief Examiner for IB Chemistry when Applied Chemistry became subsumed into IB Chemistry in 1996. Even the new Chemistry programme for first teaching in 2014 still owes much to Arden as it was Arden who first listed the eleven core topics.  He felt that all those studying chemistry should understand these eleven topics and they have stood the test of time with only ‘States of Matter’ being replaced by ‘Measurement and data processing’. Arden and I shared a background in organometallic chemistry, particularly the platinum group of compounds and we spent many happy hours discussing chemistry over meals in various parts of the world during workshops and paper setting meetings.  He wrote to me last year to say how he was now taking carboplatin and taxol, two of the drugs that we had included in the drugs and medicine option to counteract the melanoma he eventually died from. Although I knew Arden from an IB perspective he was also extremely active as an Examiner of Advanced Placement in the US and chaired the American Chemical Society Olympiad Committee. Arden was passionate about chemistry and a great teacher. But even greater than this was his gentle and encouraging nature. He always argued his case without ever upsetting those who disagreed with him and it was Arden who taught me how to diffuse potentially difficult situations that can arise from time to time in workshops. He saw the good in everyone and encouraged them to strive to achieve their full potential. Not only the IB, but humanity lost a great man when Arden died aged 75 on Tuesday 17 December 2013.