Michael Kornoff is an assistant professor of chemistry at The Master’s University. He graduated from the University of Southern California in 2010 with a graduate degree in chemistry, and began teaching at TMU in 2011. He has made significant contributions to TMU’s general and organic chemistry courses and has served as an active member of the American Chemical Society.
We recently asked him a few questions about his life as a science professor at TMU.
I was always fascinated by how things work. I was the kid that would take their toys apart to see what was inside. And as I got older, I began to focus on chemistry. Chemistry is the closest thing there is to real magic. When you see a reaction, it’s unbelievable! It’s not magic though; it’s better than magic, because it’s not a trick. It’s the real deal. The way something can seem to materialize out of nowhere or change color was just fascinating to me. So, especially as I got older, I wanted to know what was happening in those reactions.
All of science reveals God’s glory. My role of teaching young people about science and explaining how it reflects God’s glory is a true joy to me. My job is just to point to God’s creation and say, “Look what God made!” The world is understandable because it has an intelligent creator. And there are mysteries that go beyond what we can understand. Really, Christian scientists are just trying to search out and reveal God’s glory.
I found teaching to be a lot more rewarding than doing scientific research. When I was a teaching assistant at USC, the feedback I got was that I’m good at explaining things. I realized that I just wanted to be a teacher, not a researcher. I have a lot of fun, and I think my students do too. I don’t feel like I have to make chemistry class interesting, because it already is interesting. I just have to reveal that to students.
There’s a unity among the faculty at TMU that doesn’t exist at other schools. I’ve never had a disagreement with the administration or with a colleague. We see eye to eye on the most important things. And because of that, I can freely talk about the Lord and creation, which is especially important in science. And beyond the teaching side, I love that I can pray before exams. My students really appreciate that too.
I would like to teach a class about the chemistry of food and cooking. Baking and cooking in general are big hobbies of mine. I do some barbecue as well. For a young person just starting out in the world, cooking is a very practical skill to develop. I would love to teach a fun class about how to prepare nutritious and delicious food, and the underlying science behind the cooking techniques!
