Professor Richard O'Hair

Position

Professor of Chemistry in the School of Chemistry and Associate Dean  (Research and Industry) Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne.

Qualifications
•    DSc (2005) the University of Adelaide.
•    Postdoctoral studies (1990) Wollongong University with Professor Roger Truscott and (1991–1993). the University of Colorado with Professor Charles DePuy.
•    PhD (1991) the University of Adelaide working with Professor John Bowie.
•    Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and immediate past-President of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Mass Spectrometry.

Expertise
•    Mass spectrometry, ranging from fundamental studies on organic, inorganic, organometallic and biological species, through to applied mass spectrometry, including the development of new methodologies.

Key Areas of Research

•    Design of new radical based approaches for structure determination of biomolecules via mass spectrometry.
•    Ion-ion and ion-electron interactions of biomolecules.
•    Formation and fragmentation of amino acid and peptide radicals.
•    Understanding the fragmentation behaviour of key bimolecules (eg. peptides and lipids) and their oxidation products that may have relevance to disease.
•    Use of metal complexes to generate radical ions via bond homolysis.
•    Study of key radical intermediates in organic and organometallic chemistry via gas phase experiments and theory.

Selected Publications

Rijs, N; Waters, T; Khairallah, GN; O’Hair, RAJ. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2008, 130, 1069-1079.

Feketeová, L; Khairallah, GN; O’Hair, RAJ. Eur. J. Mass Spectrom. 2008, 14, 107–110.