Education:
Ph.D- Medicinal Chemistry in Natural Products Chemistry, Northeastern University, Boston, Ma 1983
M.S.- Medicinal Chemistry, Northeastern University, Boston, Ma 1980
B.S.- Chemistry and Biology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 1972
Research interests: natural products chemistry; isolation and identification of anticarcinogens from food and plants, spectroscopy (NMR and MS), REACT NMR, continuous flow chemistry monitoring. Also medicinal plants, wild edible plants, and poisonous plants, vitamin contents of new and unusual wild plants, ethnobotany of North and South America including Indian and pioneer uses of plants and the prehistoric plains Amerindians teepee rings. Organically raised vegetables and organically raised lamb .
Nature Classes Experience: Dr. Z has taught courses in edible and medicinal wild plants for over 35 years. He has taught edible/medicinal plant courses at three different universities and at about 6 or 7 nature centers and institutes. Tom has been on local and national television 3 times talking about edible wild plants.(see alsoWild Food Biography enclosed for dates and places). Up coming IUPUI class offerings Spring 2011: Upcoming classes: Search "plants". Here is a list of some of his favorite books and articles on edible and medicinal plants. Click to see a photo of one of his classes with Dr Z included. He taught a winter foraging class about Indian and Pioneer Uses of Plants for the West Michigan chapter of the Sierra Club one winter. They were able to finance their yearly newletter with his donated lecture and time. Additional academic experience: he has taught plant taxonomy at the University of Wyoming at Laramie, Wyoming. Dr. Zennie has been on various poison control boards for 10 years including associate editor of Poisonindex (currently). Tom has also written numerous articles on edible and medicinal wild plants in the popular press as well as in the scientific literature (21 scientific papers). The first scientific paper he ever published was on the vitamin contents of edible wild plants while he was still an undergraduate (1971) at the University of Cincinnati (See Vitamin paper published in 1977 in the journal Economic Botany). At an earlier point in his life he studied with a Cherokee Indian herb doctor named White Owl ( aka Pete Whitman) for about 5 years. White Owl ran the Indian Arrow Root and Herb Shop in Cincinnati, Ohio. White Owl gave a few lectures at Ohio State University every year in the Pharmacy Department. White Owl died when he was 87 and was married to his third wife. One of the last memorable times they had together was when they found the largest amount of wild ginseng that either of them had ever seen. They were doing some exploring at the site of a soon to be flooded valley that was acquired by the state of Ohio for the new East Fork Lake on the Little Miami River, when they suddenly stopped looked at each other, smiled and found themselves in the middle of a large wild ginseng patch about twenty ft square! Because the valley and all the plants and vegetation were going to be destroyed by the backed-up water from the new dam, they got down on their knees, pulled out their pocket knives and then proceeded to collect all of the roots. An action that held no guilt! During this same time frame, Tom also spent time in the Appalachian Mountains talking and hiking the mountains with old herb hunters and exploring. He has collected many medicinal plants and herbs.
Tom got his Ph.D in medicinal chemisty in 1983 (area of natural products) with his thesis and research on the chemistry of a Mexican medicinal plant which grows at the edge of the rain forest. After getting his Ph.D, he did post-doctoral research for 3 1/2 years at Purdue University on the isolation and identification of anti-tumor and anti-cancer compounds from plants and also research on the isolation and identification of anti-carcinogens (compounds that prevent cancer) from foods, vegetables and herbs (see scientific publications). At present he lives on a small farm near Cloverdale, Indiana where he and his wife raise sheep and sell organically raised lamb, beef and garlic on the
To pay part of the bills, Dr Z works as a farming consultant for organic farmers and also for the drug industry as an analytical chemist doing industrial consulting for Process Analytical Technologies (PAT), REACT NMR and spectroscopy. See photo of Dr Z at work!
As for music, Tom loves blues and bluegrass and virtually all acoustic music. As a throw back to past days and nefarious past here's a little shot of his blues harp in mp3 format.
Here's Dr Z in Alaska and a photo of the famous Copper River in Alaska. He also likes to salmon fish. Here's also a photo of a grayling from Haley Creek off the famous Copper River in Alaska and a photo of a male pink salmon (humpie) caught on Resurrection Creek on the Kenali Peninula.
Very important issue for Alaska mining:
Copper and gold mining can be very destructive to the environment! See this link for information.
In addition he likes to hunt deer! Mountain climbing in Wyoming is also one of his favorite things to do in the summer. The beautiful Snowy Range in the Medicine Bow National Forest is one of his favorite places. Here's a photo of him and his family up on Medicine Bow Peak (~12,000 ft) and really nice photo of some wild brook trout caught at 11,000 ft in North Gap Lake.
A note about biofuels: as you can see below we are definitely pro-biofuels. We own a flex-fuel (E-85) vehicle and use B20 biodiesel in our tractors and trucks. Recently (Jan, 2011), the EPA approved E-15 for use in all vehicles made since 2001. E-15 denotes a fuel that is 15% ethanol and 85% unleaded gasoline. E-85 is 85% ethanol and 15% un-leaded gasoline. Typically most people are already using E-10 which is a common mixture found at most gas stations in the midwest. The USA production of biofuels produces cleaner burning fuels that are renewable, locally produced and without the use of the multi-national oil companies like BP and OPEC. Excellent link for E-85 prices and local availability.. Here's how Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbs) feels about domestic E-85 versus OPEC.
