1. N I C K B U R D I C K
Portland, OR 97206
nburdick@reed.edu | 541-654-3568
OBJECTIVES
 Organic Chemistry: Natural product synthesis, novel drug discovery and new organic catalysts
for material production.
 Thesis: An Alpha Helix Built to Last: Alpha helix stabilizing electron rich proline derivative N-
terminus caps: quantitative analysis and identification of trends.
EDUCATION
Reed College, Portland, OR (Expected Graduation: May 2016)
 Chemistry Major
RELEVANT WORK EXPERI ENCE
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry: Intern and Science Educator (Chemistry Lab) (July 2014 – Present)
 Two years of excellence as a science educator; keeping visitors safe and intrigued. Radio trained
for emergencies and training new volunteers.
 Regularly prepared solutions for over sixty interactive modules and helped design new ones, like
‘sea the change’ which demonstrates ocean acidification from excess CO2
Undergraduate Summer Researcher: Computational chemistry (July 2015 – August 2015)
 Found transition states for restricted-rotation in previously uncharacterized tri-aryl methanols.
 Sought quantitative estimates of transition state energies between atropisomers.
Reed College Environmental Health and Safety Department (June 2014 – August 2014)
 Safely handled hazardous compounds, including those deemed too dangerous for labs, such as
old peroxides and mystery compounds left in retired labs
 Found MSDS’s for hundreds of products and condensed them for the institutional network
 Trained by OSHA as a safety inspector – familiar with guidelines and expectations for ventilation
and shielding
SKILLS AND TRANING
Lab Techniques
 Synthesis: advanced organic synthesis, inorganic synthesis, chromatography
 Spectroscopy: NMR, molecular absorption and emission (IR, UV/vis) and atomic
absorption
 X-Ray diffraction of powder samples
 Computational: Hartree-Fock, Merk Mechanics, and DFT modeling with Spartan and
GAMESS. Compiled and worked with GAMESS, ORCA, Odyssey, Macmolplt and Avagadro
Coursework
 Advanced department electives: organic synthesis, physical organic, and inorganic
chemistry
 Biochemistry: structural biochemistry, metabolic biochemisty, neuropharmacology
 Other STEM coursework: analytical chemistry, quantum mechanics, statistical
thermodynamics and kinetics, physics, linear algebra, statistics, multivariable calculus, and
mathematical analysis