Position
Senior Lecturer at the School of Chemistry, the University of Tasmania.
Qualifications
• Post-doctoral research at The Texas A&M University with Professor Sir Derek H.R. Barton and at The Australian National University with Professor Martin G. Banwell.
• PhD, Flinders University, South Australia working with Professor Rolf Prager.
Expertise
• Development of new synthetic methodologies and their application to the synthesis of biologically active and/or structurally complex molecules.
• Determination of the reaction mechanism of the oxidation of hydrazides.
Key Areas of Research
• Understanding the mechanism of hydrazide oxidation in the activation of the tuberculosis drug isoniazid.
• Design and synthesis of new inhibitors of Mycobacterim tuberculosis.
• The design and fabrication of polymer monolith supported catalyst microreactors for organic synthesis.
• The use of pyrrole as a template in the synthesis of alkaloids.
• Synthesis of phytotoxins from the soil borne bacterium Streptomyces scabies.
Selected Publications
Amos, RIJ; Gourlay, BS; Schiesser, CH; Smith, JA; Yates, BF. A Mechanism on the Oxidation of Hydrazides: Application to the Tuberculosis Drug Isoniazid. Chem. Commun., 2008, 1695–1697.
