By Anna Lee ’08
Waidner retires as professor of chemistry, emeritus
Having worked full time since he was 19, Dr. Chris Waidner ’87 is taking a well-deserved break.
Waidner retired in May as associate professor of chemistry, emeritus. Prior to arriving at Wofford in 2007, he spent the first 14 years of his career as a research chemist at Nufarm Specialty Products in Beaufort, S.C., where he oversaw research and business development.
“When I was a student at Wofford, I was hired by Milliken & Co. to work in their research labs, so that lit the fire for me to want to go into the chemistry industry,” Waidner says.
When Nufarm was bought out, Waidner decided to make a career change. As a graduate student at Georgetown University, he taught an evening organic chemistry class for two years, and the experience gave Waidner a taste for teaching.
“In late 2006, I called Dr. Don Castillo, the chair of Wofford’s chemistry department, to ask if he knew of any colleges in South Carolina that were hiring, and he said, ‘We’re actually hiring next year.’ So, I applied, and I was given the job,” Waidner says.
He arrived on campus to find his alma mater much changed. Wightman Hall, which once was adjacent to the college’s cafeteria, had been torn down, and a 60,000-square-foot addition to the Roger Milliken Science Center now stood in its place.
“It was all new faces in a renovated building. All the professors I had were retired, except for Dr. Dave Whisnant, who had moved over to information technology,” says Waidner, who taught general and organic chemistry.
Waidner had a hand in developing new courses such as organic spectroscopy, which is the study of how light interacts with matter, and served as a pre-medicine advisor, helping students navigate the path to medical school.
“The caliber of students at Wofford made teaching a deeply rewarding experience,” he says.Waidner’s Interims, which spanned the continents, were especially popular. He took students to Australia, New Zealand, France, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Mexico, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Tibet and China, including a memorable ride on the Shanghai maglev, a high-speed train capable of reaching speeds of up to 268 miles per hour.
Waidner and his wife, Molly, plan to travel more in their retirement, take regular ski trips out west and serve in their church.
Smith retires as professor of biology, emeritus
Dr. Charles Smith was 8 years old when he was gifted his first pet — a common eastern garter snake, or Thamnophis sirtalis, that a neighbor had caught.
“I was immediately hooked,” says Smith, who retired in May as associate professor of biology, emeritus. “I spent virtually every moment from that point on searching for snakes, thinking about snakes and eventually working with snakes in zoos.”
Smith spent the first 15 years of his professional career as a zookeeper before going back to school to get a college degree. His plan was to return to museum and zoo work, but in his senior year, Smith was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, which allowed him to attend graduate school at the University of Connecticut and pursue a Ph.D.
“It was there that I had my first real teaching experience, and I loved it, especially teaching hands-on labs,” he says.
Smith taught at UConn for two years before coming to Wofford in 2009. He advised biology majors and first-year students and taught courses on biological inquiry, field biology and biology of vertebrates.
“I loved being able to get to know my students, having conversations with them in the hallways about virtually anything and watching them progress from their first year up until they graduate,” says Smith.
Interims were especially enjoyable. Smith led students on trips all over the world, from night hikes in the jungles of Belize, to climbing volcanos in Chile, to taking a river boat down the Mekong River in Vietnam.
He also continued to work with snakes. In 2011, Smith and a team of researchers discovered that copperhead snakes can reproduce in the wild by parthenogenesis, or virgin birth. In 2019, while conducting an ultrasound on a pregnant female copperhead, Smith discovered an embryo wiggling the tip of its tail, a behavior called caudal luring that had previously only been observed in newborn or young snake species.
In his retirement, Smith plans to be even more involved in research and looks forward to joining a colleague in the jungles of Ecuador to study bushmaster snakes. “I’ve always wanted to help with the project, as bushmasters are another iconic snake species, but such work required devoting many months of field time that I simply did not have until now,” he says.
He’s also working with fellow herpetologists on four new books and hopes to publish one of his own. “I’ve had the idea in my head to write and illustrate a children’s book about snakes for many years, so one of my goals is to make that book a reality,” he says.