Vicente Talanquer

Vicente Augusto Talanquer Artigas (born 1962 in Mexico City) is a Mexican-American chemical education researcher, physical chemist, and university professor. Since 2000, he has been a professor at the University of Arizona. His work in chemical education focuses on learning progressions, students’ conceptions, and “chemical thinking”. He developed the instructional framework Chemical Thinking and documented its implementation in undergraduate general chemistry at the University of Arizona. For his contributions to chemical education, he has received several international awards, including the James Flack Norris Award, the ACS Award for Achievement in Research for the Teaching & Learning of Chemistry (2021), and the Nyholm Prize for Education of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2025).

Early life and education Talanquer’s parents fled Spain to Mexico as children during the Spanish Civil War. After receiving asylum from the Mexican government, the family settled in Mexico. He attended Colegio Madrid in Mexico City. From 1989 to 1992, he pursued doctoral studies in physical chemistry at UNAM under the supervision of Alberto Robledo. His dissertation was titled “Bulk and interfacial properties of reacting and associating systems”. He received a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1992. From 1996 to 2003, he was a visiting scholar at the James Franck Institute. He is a co-facilitator of the IUPAC project “Systems Thinking in Chemistry for Sustainability: Toward 2030 and Beyond (STCS 2030+)”. In 2019 he chaired the Gordon Research Conference in Chemistry Education Research and Practice, and he served as chair in 2022 of the ACS DivCHED.

Research Talanquer’s research aims to analyze and improve chemistry teaching and learning. A central focus is on the conceptual frameworks and reasoning patterns learners use when qualitatively judging chemical phenomena (for example, classifying or predicting them), and on how these strategies change with increasing expertise. intuitive heuristics used when judging chemical substances, and learners’ understanding of acid–base concepts. On this basis, he proposed a model explaining common misconceptions in chemistry learning.

In another model, he characterized “chemical rationales”, distinguishing three broad modes of chemical thinking: phenomenological, mechanistic, and structural rationales.

He also developed theoretical models for learning progressions and curriculum design in chemistry. He outlined learning stages in students’ understanding of the structure of matter (particle structure, properties, and dynamics) and derived learning pathways from everyday to expert conceptions. These pathways have been used to design learning progressions that anticipate typical developmental steps in understanding matter and can inform instruction. Building on this work, he proposed a framework for chemistry teaching that describes likely developmental trajectories of chemical thinking from grade 8 through university education.

In the context of sustainable development goals, Talanquer emphasizes the role of chemistry education in enabling learners to critically reflect on their world and to apply chemical knowledge to social and environmental questions. He highlights the importance of “eco-reflexive” thinking and action, in which chemical problems are examined from moral–philosophical, societal, and ecological perspectives.

Awards and honors A key focus of his public recognition lies on contributions to chemistry and natural science education, which is reflected in several national and international teaching and research awards. 2025: Nyholm Prize for Education (Royal Society of Chemistry) 2019: CSSP Educational Research Award (Council of Scientific Society Presidents) 2015: Arizona Professor of the Year (Carnegie Foundation) 2012: James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry (Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society) 2012: Henry and Phyllis Koffler Prize in Teaching (University of Arizona) 2007: Leicester & Kathryn Sherrill Creative Teaching Award (University of Arizona) 2006: Five-Star Teaching Award (University of Arizona) 2004: Early-Career Teaching Award (College of Science, University of Arizona) 1998: Outstanding Young Professor in Physical Sciences Education (UNAM)

Selected publications Talanquer has published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and over ten textbooks; four of these are used nationwide in Mexico as elementary-school science textbooks.