Classes taught at the University Level:
Organic Chemistry
Quantitative Analysis
Education:
Ph.D. in Chemistry (Organic Chemistry)
University of Memphis
M.S. in Chemistry (Organic Chemistry)
University of Memphis
B.S. in Philosophy
East Tennessee State University
Description of Teaching
Dr. Benjamin currently teaches organic chemistry and quantitative analysis at the University of Pikeville. He has also taught at Rhodes College and the University of Memphis. He specializes in organic chemistry and provides one-on-one and classroom instruction for achieving higher scores in organic chemistry courses, as well as on the MCAT, PCAT, and GRE subject test in chemistry. Dr. Benjamin excelled in organic chemistry as an undergraduate, scoring amongst the highest possible percentiles on the ACS standardized test in Organic Chemistry I and II, and so knows what it takes to obtain outstanding success in this subject. In addition, Dr. Benjamin excelled in his cumulative exams in organic chemistry during graduate school. For his research and academic scholarship, he was awarded a highly prestigious doctoral fellowship from the Ciba Chemical Company.
Upon successful completion of Dr. Benjamin’s instruction, students will have an enhanced understanding of the impact of organic chemistry and technologies derived from it on their particular areas of study and career goals, including all pre-health professionals. Very briefly, students will be able to do the following after this course:
- Discuss bonding in organic molecules, including concepts of valence bond theory, hybridization, resonance, and molecular orbitals.
- Understand factors that contribute to the stability of organic molecules.
- Understand the correlation between physical properties of substances and intermolecular forces.
- Describe the structure and properties of select organic compounds and their reactions, including nucleophilic substitution, elimination, oxidation, reduction, radical, aromatic, etc…
- Use an understanding of reaction mechanisms to predict the outcome of chemical reactions.
- Apply IUPAC guidelines for naming organic molecules, including stereochemical distinctions.
- Identify common functional groups in organic chemistry and relate reactivity patterns with molecular structure/physical properties of organic compounds.
- Distinguish between energy of activation and transition state, stereochemistry, stereoselective, and stereospecific reactions.
- Explain and define the solvent effects on reactions.
- Identify unknown structures with the use of spectroscopy and spectrometric methods.
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