Mark Richardson

Mark Richardson is the current head of research at Bancor. Prior to this, they worked as a CERC postdoctoral research fellow at CSIRO from January 2019 to January 2021. In this role, they were responsible for instructing and managing groups of up to sixteen 1st and 2nd year chemistry students in their practical classes. This included giving a short introductory presentation on the purpose of each practical session, safety considerations and correct techniques, supervising students’ practical work to ensure safe practise was maintained and instruments were handled correctly, and marking of practical reports and supplying useful feedback to students.

From January 2015 to August 2018, Richardson worked as a university lecturer at UC Irvine. In this role, they were responsible for the creation of teaching material for inclusion in a new educational program suite (published as “ChemVoyage”) for organic chemistry students at Macquarie University. This required the creation of 50 unique complex multiple choice problems (30 easy, 10 moderate, 10 difficult) intended for both assessment and as a teaching aid in third-year organic chemistry classes, the generation of two derivatives of “feedback” documents for all 50 questions; one which thoroughly reviews the concepts required to answer the question (observed by students who answered incorrectly), and another that briefly reiterates the key points only (observed by students who answered correctly), the creation of >300 clear and presentable textbook-style figures (including chemical structures, transition states, mechanisms and molecular orbital diagrams) using ChemDraw, and then exporting them to an appropriate format for incorporation into the program, and frequent progress reports and presentations for meetings between the academics, the programmers and myself to ensure coherence to the projects aims by all parties.

Richardson is also proficient in undergraduate-level pericyclic chemistry, including the ability to deal with complex stereochemical problems, knowledge of cycloaddition, electrocyclic and sigmatropic rearrangements, and the circumstances under which they occur, understanding of the Woodward-Hoffman rules for photo- and thermo-activation in different chemical situations, and the different stereochemical outcomes of each, drawing and interpreting molecular orbital diagrams to predict the outcomes of reactions.

Mark Richardson completed a Doctorate of Philosophy in Chemistry at the University of Melbourne. Prior to that, they completed a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Chemistry at Macquarie University. Mark also holds a Higher School Certificate from Blue Mountains Grammar School.

Mark Richardson reports to Liat Eytan, VP R&D.