Description

Book Details

Organic Chemistry: Mechanistic Patterns is the very first introductory organic chemistry title that holistically focuses on a mechanistic approach; an approach that has proven to achieve a deeper understanding of chemical reactivity. This mechanistic approach to the dynamic world of organic chemistry visualizes reactivity as a collection of patterns in electron movement, making it possible for students to describe why a reaction occurred. Recognizing patterns of electron flow between seemingly different reactions can allow students to predict how a chemical will react, even if they have never seen a particular reaction before. The text takes great care to establish a progression of reactivity, from simple to complex, introducing functional groups as necessary, while focusing on the reaction at hand rather than the various things that each functional group does.

About the Author

William Ogilvie
William Ogilvie is an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Ottawa. He was an NSERC 1967 Scholar who received his PhD from the University of Ottawa in 1989. Following this, he was an NSERC postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and at the Scripps Research Institute. In 1990, he joined Boehringer-lngelheim Pharmaceuticals (then BioMega) in Montreal, working as a research scientist, and spent 11 years in the industry before moving to uOttawa. His teaching focus has been organic and medicinal chemistry, and he has also taught large classes of science for non-scientists. He was awarded the Excellence in Education Prize by the University of Ottawa in 2006.

Nathan Ackroyd
Nathan Ackroyd is an associate professor of Chemistry and a faculty member at Mount Royal University in Calgary. He has always been interested in how the world works as it does. Trying to find detailed answers to broad questions led him to an early interest in chemistry and physics. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Brigham Young University, he moved to the University of Illinois, where he focused on the organic synthesis of imaging agents to simplify the diagnosis of breast tumours. In addition to Organic Chemistry, Dr. Ackroyd teaches Biochemical Pharmacology and Drug Discovery for fourth-year biology students. Through these courses, he hopes to increase students’ understanding of how the chemicals we are made of interact with the chemicals we use every day.

C. Scott Browning
Scott Browning is Senior Lecturer and a faculty member at the University of Toronto. His research interests are in chemical education, particularly scientific literacy and technology-based learning and instruction in post-secondary science education. Included in his research are best practices in science instruction—particularly as it relates to the role of technology in learning and teaching—and the involvement of undergraduates in meaningful current scientific research. At the intersection of these domains, he is also working with undergraduate students using higher level methods in computational chemistry to better understand molecular processes in both the biochemical and chemical realms. Dr. Browning is very involved in chemical education at the University of Toronto and across the province and in 2009 was the organizer of the Ontario Chemistry Olympiad.