Brian J. Smith

Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Bucknell University, 2016-present
Postdoctoral Research, Cornell University, 2012-2016
PhD, Chemistry, Stanford University, 2012
Volunteer High School Teacher, 2005-2006
BS, Chemistry & Classics, Georgetown University, 2005

Brian grew up in South Jersey, just across the river from Philadelphia, and developed an eternal appreciation for a fresh soft pretzel. He attended Georgetown University as an undergraduate, working with K. Travis Holman on the synthesis and crystallization of metallated arene sulfonates. After Georgetown, he returned to Philadelphia to volunteer teach high school science for one year at St. Joseph's Prep. He then headed out west to California for graduate school, discovering avocados and a love of hiking and camping, particularly in Yosemite and the Big Basin area.

Brian earned his PhD with Dan Stack  at Stanford University, studying porous silicas and their use as functional substrates for immobilized discrete oxidation catalysts. He did his postdoctoral studies at Cornell University with Will Dichtel (now at Northwestern), researching covalent organic frameworks (COFs), porous crystalline molecular materials, to better understand the synthetic & crystallization challenges facing these systems.  

Contact: brian.smith@bucknell.edu