Christopher Becker Email & Phone Number

I am an experienced educator in science and chemistry. Since leaving a long and productive career in research, I earned New York and Colorado State teacher license's for Chemistry. I have worked at the undergraduate and high school level and have earned the respect of my students and colleagues as a dedicated and caring educator. I have worked at The Harley School the past six years as the Upper School Chemistry teacher. In this intimate setting I have had successful outcomes teaching general, honors and AP Chemistry. I am an enthusiastic participant and school leader whether it involved chaperoning outdoor education field trips, coaching the bowling team, participating on school committee's including our reentry task force to manage our school conduct during this pandemic or as the "Potion Master" during the school's Wizard Night celebration. I have a passion for science and enjoy the unique opportunity teaching provides to have an impact on the development of our next generation of society.Prior to teaching, I was a research scientist specializing in organic synthesis focusing on the design and synthesis of small molecules targeting diseases in a variety of therapy areas in a pharmaceutical discovery setting. My experience included lead generation, lead optimization, large scale method development and the introduction of green chemistry into drug discovery. My strengths included problem solving, team building and a broad synthetic skill set acquired from over twenty years in a research chemistry environment. My particular accomplishments included; the design and synthesis of numerous drug candidates that led to multiple patents and transitioned projects to the clinic. As a leader in our green chemistry initiative, our department was able to reduce our halogenated solvent usage by 45% over a four-year period. I represented AstraZeneca on the American Chemical Society’s GCI Roundtable to share best practices across the industry. Specialties: Teaching, Education, General Chemistry/Organic Chemistry Laboratory, Synthesis, organic chemistry, heterocyclic chemistry, green chemistry, teaching chemistry and science

Listed skills include Organic Chemistry, Chemistry, Hplc, Nmr, and 21 others.