Bryan M. Hill

Biography

Dr. Bryan M. Hill is an Assistant Professor at Faculty of Science, Department of Chemistry, Brandon University. Brandon University is one of a very few predominantly undergraduate liberal arts and sciences institutions in Canada.

Research Interest

He is interested in “Synthetic Organic Chemistry”, now what exactly does that mean? Most people will have come across the Periodic Table of the Elements, and become aware that different elements will bond together to make different molecules or compounds. “Organic” compounds have the element carbon as the structural “backbone”, simple molecules like methane have only one carbon atom whereas more complex molecules can have hundreds or even thousands of carbon atoms. Now carbon by itself can be pretty boring (unless it’s in your wedding ring, or in a nanotube) so some other elements join into “the party” so to speak, the typical culprits being; Oxygen, Sulfur, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and the Halogens. The different combination of these elements and carbon make the different “families” of Organic compounds each containing specific “functional groups” (for examples alcohols C-O-H all with single bonds). Different “functional groups” have different physical, chemical and even biological properties.