March 2019 Instructor of the Month, Florence Williams

What do you teach?

I've taught Chemistry 261 and Chemistry 263, which together make up 'introductory organic chemistry', essentially. It's the first introduction to organic chemistry that students have in the program and just recently I taught Chemistry 554, which is bioconjugate chemistry.

Why should people learn about this?

I think a lot of people ask that question: why do I need to learn organic chemistry? And even if not for the science, a large part of organic chemistry is really problem solving-taking a complex situation with multiple variables and really using logic to fine tune and predict what an outcome is going to be. The way that we teach organic chemistry in this department focuses more on understanding-fundamental understanding-and using those logical predictions rather than memorizing reactions.

There is always some element of memorization because, as I say in my class, organic chemistry is sort of like learning a new language; you have to first learn the words and then learn how to put them together. You learn the words first, and that's memorization, but then you learn the grammar and at that point you start to learn how to form your own sentences-predicting what a reaction outcome would be. But before you can even learn what a reaction is going to do, you have to learn what the molecules that we're working with are and what makes them distinct from each other, and then you use those principles to predict reactivity.

What's the coolest thing about this subject area?

I think it's how integral it is to understanding the physical world around us: what is plastic made out of or what are the characteristics of these different materials, that's all chemistry or drugs and pharmaceuticals-that's the obvious one.

Nutrition too, a lot of times people don't realize how much there is a connection between nutrition and understanding organic chemistry. For instance trans-fats are a really big topic, or at least were a couple of years ago, and the term 'trans-fat' literally comes from the organic chemistry term of a double bond being in one particular geometry versus another. There's either a cis- or trans-double bond and fats that are naturally derived always have these cis double bonds, so trans-double bonds in fat is a trans-fat.

It all comes back to understanding the organic chemistry, and if you understand organic chemistry you also might understand how trans-fats even get made in the first place. If they're not natural, then how does it become a part of our food? That all connects back to the underlying chemistry.

For me personally, the thing that I like the best is that it's kind of like figuring out puzzles. It's solving a problem given a certain number of tools and you can either try to create a new tool that we don't have, and that would be making a new chemical reaction and new type of bond that we couldn't make before. Or, you can take something and say how can I make it with the tools that I have and that's synthesizing some natural product or target molecule. To me, that's what I like-there's this constant problem-solving aspect about chemistry; a creativity that goes along with the logic and mathematics.

What was your favourite learning experience as an undergrad and how do you incorporate that experience into teaching your students?

Mostly I think the thing that always got me was when people were really enthusiastic about what they were teaching, that they really cared, and that they engaged with us. I think that that's really a big deal, to engage with the audience and make sure they that they're connecting with what you're saying and if they're not, slowing down and covering that material again.

What was it that drew you to this field?

That there's this logic and creativity coming together in this one area; I often say that my first love of chemistry was before I knew what chemistry was. I really like cooking and specifically baking and that's really connected. Baking requires you to have such exact measurements because everything comes together in a certain way and a certain amount of baking time, etcetera-it can be quite exacting.

There's an element of creating something that's important-that we're actually physically creating new materials and new molecules that can be useful and that's very satisfying. How can we put these pieces together a little differently and get something new and exciting?

You were involved in the UAlberta Working for Inclusivity in Chemistry group. How do you now think this group is helping the future of women in chemistry?

I think that not seeing yourself reflected in higher levels has, whether conscious or not, has an impact on your life choices and where you think that you might be able to pursue a career. So the start of Working for Inclusivity in Chemistry was really more to increase the interaction between researchers in the department and women in whatever job or higher-level job in chemistry that they might be interested in. It started in academics, but it's not just academics; it's also in industry and other professions where chemistry is employed and where women might be less represented. The idea was to increase the interaction between researchers and those women so that even though there's a lower number of them, if we increase the amount of interactions and then have little informal sit down sessions-coffee, Q&A sessions-then that might help them feel a little more comfortable envisioning themselves in jobs and in careers like that.

We have gotten a lot of positive feedback, a lot of people have said that they've really benefited from these discussions. I know some informally I've talked to some people that before would not have said they were considering academics, but now they have said that they are starting to consider academics as a possible career path. So, I do think it has had an effect.

What is one thing that people would be surprised to know about you?

I'm a home brewer. I brew my own beer. I guess if you think about it, it's not that surprising because it's combining chemistry and biology, but I like to combine my own beers-it's a fun hobby.