Piehl promoted to associate professor

Clayton Piehl was recently named an associate professor of chemistry instruction by Hope College in spring 2026. He previously served at Hope College as an assistant professor of chemistry and taught advanced placement chemistry in Austin, Texas. At Hope, he is developing a first-year chemistry lab program designed to help students build essential laboratory skills and connect core chemical concepts with real-world challenges.

Clayton Piehl

In addition to his teaching, Piehl participates in the college’s long-standing watershed assessment initiative, a collaborative effort among faculty and students through the Global Water Research Institute. Piehl and his collaborators analyze E. coli genomes collected from Lake Macatawa and its surrounding watershed to identify seasonal and geographic patterns in genomic diversity. The team uses isolated strains to computationally reconstruct bacterial metabolic reactions, improving predictive models of microbial function. By analyzing E. coli concentration and conducting microbial source tracking, the initiative aims to determine current watershed conditions, increase awareness and spur changes in public behavior while improving water quality management.

Piehl earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a master’s degree in science education from the University of Texas at Austin. He later earned a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 2020 before beginning his role at Hope College.