Thomas A. Sobiech Email & Phone Number

Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States

Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States

As the lab safety officer I was responsible for all safety considerations within our graduate organic chemistry research lab. These responsibilities included enforcement of proper personal protective equipment, development of standard operating procedures, management of chemical labeling, proper waste disposal and regular communication with safety officials at the university such as Environmental Health and Safety.

The Magnetic Resonance Center is a state-of-the-art NMR and EPR facility located in the University at Buffalo's chemistry department. As an NMR graduate assistant I was responsible for routine maintence of Varian 300 MHz, 400 MHz, 500 MHz, 600 MHz and 750 MHz as well as Bruker 400 MHz and 500 MHz NMR spectrometers. Typical maintenance of all instruments included cryogen fills, instrument calibrations and troubleshooting software/hardware related issues. In addition to this I was responsible for instructing undergraduate, graduate and faculty members in NMR sample preparation, data acquisition and experimental planning. Throughout this role I had also engaged in several successful collaborations with other researchers in academics and industry.

As a graduate research assistant my major focus was on the synthesis and characterization of cavity containing aromatic oligoamides. These abiotic multiturn helices and macrocycles adopt stable solution state conformations using intramolecular hydrogen bonding interactions. We found that these oligomers and macrocycles exhibit interesting self-assembly and host-guest chemistry. Throughout my research we relied on a combination of, one- and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, fluorescence spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, ITC and computational modeling, for the determination of solution and solid-state structures as well as for the quantification of thermodynamic parameters.

I was responsible for teaching introductory as well as advanced undergraduate laboratory courses in general chemistry and physical chemistry. In this role I led a recitation with up to 20 students where we reviewed relevant lecture information and discussed the laboratory experiment of the week. I was also responsible for training senior undergraduate students in professional writing for scientific publications.

As a visiting student I was tasked with the design and synthesis of novel ligands in organometallic chemistry. During this position I learned valuable skills in the synthesis and characterization of air sensitive transition metal complexes.

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Chemistry

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Biochemistry