PhD organic chemist | 7+ years of teaching experience | 50+ students helped, 100+ teaching hours. I offer flexible scheduling and personalized lesson plans tailored to your needs.

Find out more about Rich

• When did you develop an interest in your chosen field and private tutoring?

  I became interested in helping others with organic chemistry while taking the course in my sophomore year of college. I found a great way to study and fully understand the topics was to explain them to others who were struggling. Like the quote from physicist Richard Feynman: "If you cannot explain something in simple terms, you don't understand it." After completing the course, I officially started tutoring others through my college's tutoring program, which I did until graduation. Following that, I was interested in continuing to privately tutor in organic chemistry to help as many others as possible.

• Tell us more about the subject you teach and the topics you like to discuss with students (and possibly those you like a little less).

  Organic chemistry is the study of carbon-containing compounds. Unlike general chemistry, which you learn in high school and the first year of college, organic chemistry involves significantly fewer mathematical aspects, such as formula memorization, and much more conceptual understanding and visualization. As such, my favorite topics to discuss with students involve 3D manipulation of structures, such as stereochemistry. If I had to pick a less favored topic to teach, it would be orbital memorization and interactions, as these topics are highly complex to visualize and understand.

• Did you have any role models; a teacher that inspired you?

  My undergraduate organic chemistry professor is my premier scientific role model. She transformed organic chemistry, a course that many fear and loathe, into an understandable and enjoyable experience. I was only incredibly passionate about chemistry after taking her class. I enjoyed it so much while taking it that I switched majors from biology (intending to go to medical school) to chemistry to attend graduate school. Aside from sophomore year organic chemistry, I was fortunate enough to take an advanced organic chemistry course with her my senior year and perform research with her as my PI.

• What do you think are the qualities required to be a good tutor?

  Aside from obviously being knowledgeable about the material you're teaching, one of the most essential qualities of being a good tutor is empathy. When you're in school taking necessary courses for your major, it can feel like your grade in this course will affect your entire future. I remember the stress and anxiety I felt while I was taking the class, so I wanted to be able to help others better understand the course material and lessen their worries a bit.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your subject or your days at school.

  Working with others is an important aspect of college, especially when taking challenging courses. I took many difficult chemistry courses, but I could work through them with the help of my friends in the same class. We would help each other do homework, study for tests, and better understand the material. Equally as crucial to the academic help we gave each other was the stress relief from procrastinating doing work and watching a movie, listening to music, or talking about random topics when we were "supposed" to be working, which led to many fun nights in the library or at each other's houses.

• What were the difficulties or challenges you faced or still facing in your subject?

  A significant aspect of organic chemistry is, unfortunately, memorization. If you have memorized the foundational material, you can only reason through some aspects, such as reagents or chemical properties. Once you've learned the information, you must be able to appropriately apply it to the problem at hand, which involves developing a fair amount of pattern recognition for specific motifs, such as functional group transformations. Creating this sense of pattern recognition was the most challenging aspect of the course and remains difficult in my graduate studies as the problems become increasingly more complex and the amount of material to memorize increases.

• Do you have a particular passion? Is it teaching in general or an element of the subject or something completely different?

  One of the things I always loved about organic chemistry was the puzzle-solving aspect of it. This aspect is especially pronounced when solving synthesis-type problems, where there could be a variety of acceptable answers based on different routes. Aside from solving these puzzles, I love teaching others methods to approach them and watching them put the pieces together to reach the solution.

• What makes you a Superprof (besides answering this interview questions :-P)?

  My position as a graduate student places me uniquely between an undergraduate student and a professor. College was still recent enough for me to remember, recognize, and address the course's most challenging aspects and address them directly. Aside from addressing any questions and concerns from students, I also have a very flexible schedule and can accommodate different teaching and learning styles. I have performed well in my courses, graduating with distinction and several chemistry awards. Additionally, I have helped dozens of students with their coursework in lectures and labs and improved their results by at least one letter grade. I love to help others understand better and appreciate organic chemistry, and I plan to continue tutoring and helping many more!