Benjamin Wilson
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Office: TECH 674 B
Education and Training:
- 2008 Abilene Christian University, B.S. in Chemistry
- 2015 Louisiana State University, Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry; with Erwin Poliakoff
Research Interests:
Assistant Professor Benjamin Wilson employs a wide range of computational tools to examine the details of chemical reactions, biochemical mechanisms and improve the learning outcomes for students in his undergraduate courses.
- Computational Organic Chemistry - a student is currently working to examine the most likely mechanism for the dioxygenation of dienes with TEMPO and carboxylic acids.
- Molecular Dynamics - a student is currently developing molecular dynamics simulations to understand the inhibition of alkaline phosphatase with L-alanine and its derivatives.
- Chemical education - a student has developed an R Shiny application that calculates the radial probability distribution of H-like orbitals based on user input.
Students will learn to use several computational programs, such as Gaussian 16 and GROMACS depending on the area of research. All students will learn the basics of being a Linux user and preparing figures with R Studio.
Most students will have the opportunity to present their work at a national meeting and improve their scientific writing skills.
(Undergraduate co-authors in bold type. *Corresponding author.)
Wilson, B. P. et al., "High-order harmonic generation from SF6: Deconvolution of macroscopic effects." The Journal of Chemical Physics, 2016, 145, 224305
Frolov, M. V.; Sarantseva, T. S.; Manakov, N. L.; Fulfer, B. P.; Wilson, B. P. et. al., "An Atomic Photoionization Experiment by Harmonic Generation Spectroscopy." Physical Review A, 2016, 93, 031403 (R)
(Undergraduate co-authors in bold type. Presenting author underlined.)
2023 "Mechanistic insight into the dioxygenation of dienes." Heidi Sato and Benjamin Wilson, American Chemical Society National Meeting, Spring 2023, Indianapolis, IN.
2019 "Computational Investigation of the Ring-opening Polymerization of Caprolactone and the low dispersity of the polycaprolactone," Diego Garcia and Benjamin Wilson, American Chemical Society National Meeting, Spring 2019, Orlando, Fl.
2018 "Computational investigation of the ring-opening homo- and co-polymerizations of lactide and ε-caprolactone." Diego Garcia and Benjamin Wilson, America Chemical Society National Meeting, Spring 2018, New Orleans, LA.
2017 "Computational study of the mechanistic effect of fluorine groups on the ring-opening polymerization of ε-Caprolactone with Al-centered catalysts." Christian Ortiz and Benjamin Wilson, American Chemical Society National Meeting, Spring 2017, San Francisco, CA.
2016 "Catalytic effects of electron-withdrawing groups on the ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone with Al centered catalysts." Christian Ortiz and Benjamin Wilson, American Chemical Society Southwest Regional Meeting, Fall 2016, Galveston, TX.
