University Instrumentation Center
STAFF PROFILES
Shawn Banker, Director
Phone: 603-862-3597 | Email: shawn.banker@unh.edu
.
Education:
Shawn holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology from
the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and a Masters degree in Business Administration from the
Whittemore School of Business and Economics at UNH.
Expertise: Shawn was hired as the Director of the University Instrumentation Center (UIC) in early 2014
and has extensive experience in manufacturing, engineering, and management. Shawn is responsible
for business development, outreach to the scientific community, and facilitating access to scientific
instruments throughout the university.
Background: The early years of Shawn’s career included designing automation equipment for a variety of
industries such as automotive, pharmaceutical, medical, packaging, and converting. The majority of his
career was spent working for Velcro USA Inc. in Manchester and Somersworth, NH, where he held many
positions including Director of Manufacturing for the plastics operations and Director of Engineering
where he managed a multitude of technical and operational resources.
John Wilderman, Manager and Analytical Instrument Engineer
Phone: 603-862-1092 | Email: john.wilderman@unh.edu
Education: John holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering Technology from
Wentworth Institute of Technology and a Masters degree in Business Administration from Plymouth State
University.
Expertise: As the Manager of the UIC John is responsible for many of the day to day business operations
of the department including the development and maintenance of the UIC customer database and billing
programs. John maintains the UIC facility infrastructure and helped to design the UIC’s laboratory spaces
in Parsons Hall. In his engineering role, John repairs and maintains the analytical instrumentation within
the UIC. John specializes in repair and maintenance of high-end analytical instrumentation.
Background: John worked for MSK Instruments, Inc. for eight years before joining the UIC in 1997.
While at MKS, John was involved in the electro-mechanical design and production of instrumentation.
Nancy Cherim, Analytical Instrumentation Scientist
Phone: 603-862-2182 | Email: nancy.cherim@unh.edu
Education: Nancy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in General Studies from UNH.
Expertise: Nancy operates and maintains the UIC’s electron microscopes. With a background in biology,
she also works with a diverse group of scientists, including polymer, electrical and mechanical engineering,
and materials science researchers. Nancy has analyzed thousands of samples and trained hundreds of
researchers to use the SEM and TEM.
Background: Nancy began using SEM and TEM as a student researcher during her undergraduate studies
at UNH and was hired to operate these instruments in the UIC in 1984. Nancy’s expertise continues to
grow as the UNH community increases their focus on Materials Science research.
T: 603-862-2790 | F: 603-862-4104 | uic.info@unh.edu | www.unh.edu/uic
W123 Parsons Hall, 23 Academic Way, Durham, NH 03824
© 2014 University of New Hampshire. All Rights Reserved.
Follow us on Twitter
@UNHInstruments
University Instrumentation Center
STAFF PROFILES
Dr. Patricia Stone Wilkinson, Analytical Scientist
Phone: 603-862-1447 | Email: pat.wilkinson@unh.edu
Education: Dr. Patricia Stone Wilkinson graduated from UNH with a Bachelors of Science degree in
Chemistry and from Brandeis University with a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry.
Expertise: Pat has been employed as an Analytical Instrumentation Scientist within the UIC since
2007. She is responsible for training student researchers to use the center’s analytical instrumentation,
including NMR and IR, and oversees the day-to-day operation of the NMR core facility. In addition to her
responsibilities within the UIC, Pat is an affiliate faculty member of the UNH Chemistry Department and
often serves on graduate student advisory committees.
Background: Pat’s research during graduate school involved the study of the solution structure of ion
pairs by NMR spectroscopy. Following graduate school, Pat was employed as an NMR Applications
Scientist at Bruker BioSpin Corporation for 14 years.
Rob Cinq-Mars, Analytical Instrument Engineer
Phone: 603-862-0174 | Email: rob.cinq-mars@unh.edu
Education: Rob holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of
Rhode Island with Eta Kappa Nu honors.
Expertise: As an Analytical Instrumentation Engineer, Rob’s primary responsibilities are to service
and repair scientific instrumentation on the campus of UNH. Rob is involved in the full life cycle of
scientific instrumentation from specification and source selection to installation, training, operation,
repair, maintenance and final disposition. He is a certified programmer in LabVIEW and is additionally
responsible for the UIC’s campus instrument calibration services.
Background: Rob’s professional career has covered a range of electrical engineering aspects including
electric power systems, instrumentation design, electric motors, generators and drives, control systems,
sensors, and data acquisition and analysis.
Dr. Mark Townley, Analytical Instrument Scientist
Phone: 603-862-0632 | Email: mtownley@cisunix.unh.edu
Education: Dr. Mark Townley has a Ph.D. in Zoology from UNH and a Bachelor of Science degree in
Botany also from UNH.
Expertise: Mark has extensive experience in biological imaging using various microscopy techniques.
Mark is the key operator of the Confocal Microscope and is well versed in the Scanning Electron
Microscope. He uses his expertise in his own research on chelicerate arthropod biology. He is responsible
for training students to prepare samples for analysis and the operation of the Confocal Microscope,
SEM, and Flow Cytometer. Mark maintains an active research lab, incorporating chromatography,
electrophoresis, bioassay, spectroscopy, SEM, NMR, and micro-dissection.
Background: Mark has been a member of the UNH research community for many years and began
working for the UIC in 1996. His diverse instrumentation skills are an asset to the UIC and researchers
who make use of UIC services.
T: 603-862-2790 | F: 603-862-4104 | uic.info@unh.edu | www.unh.edu/uic
W123 Parsons Hall, 23 Academic Way, Durham, NH 03824
© 2014 University of New Hampshire. All Rights Reserved.
Follow us on Twitter
@UNHInstruments