Roman A. Valiulin believes that the key to effective teaching lies in bringing together deep understanding of the subject matter with insight into the bigger picture and recognition of the rich information that an elegant visual can convey. Great learning opportunities occur also when this approach is complemented with examples, homework assignments, projects, visually rich infographics, summaries, and comparison charts. His early learning experiences have helped shape his approach to teaching. Specifically, as early as high school, chemistry was not his natural forte. Consequently, he worked hard to develop creative methods for approaching, understanding, and applying complex subject-matter. In other words, he learned how to learn.This proved to be successful, as Roman A. Valiulin went on to obtain his dual B.S. and M.S. in Organic Chemistry at Lomonosov Moscow State University - MSU (Russia, Moscow). MSU is one of the oldest established and most competitive universities in the country. He then moved across the ocean to the United States where he earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at the University of Denver. Afterward, he completed two postdoctoral fellowships, one with Professor K. C. Nicolaou at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and the other with Professor M. G. Finn at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. His industrial career started in Boston, Massachusetts where he joined the formulation development group in a mid-sized biopharmaceutical company. He gained experience in drug development and early discovery with an emphasis on physical organic chemistry, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), formulation development techniques, and material sciences before joining the medicinal chemistry group as a synthetic chemist. After six years working in a biotech hub on the East Coast, he continues his career path as an organic chemist in San Diego.
Roman A. Valiulin has published over twenty research and review articles and is a co-inventor on numerous patents. He recently finished two teaching books: “NMR Multiplet Interpretation: An Infographic Walk-Through” and “Organic Chemistry: 100 Must-Know Mechanisms” published by De Gruyter. As a Ph.D. scientist, he believes in staying engaged with the learning community, and draws inspiration through teaching and by making visually-engaging and educational chemistry infographics, which he shares on his blog: The ChemInfoGraphic Blog: http://cheminfographic.wordpress.com