Bryan

Certified Tutor

I am a process chemist and chemical engineer with over a dozen years working in the chemical industry for companies like ExxonMobil and Shell. I graduated from Caltech with a Bachelor's of Science in Chemical Engineering. While at Caltech, I discovered my love for chemistry, so I decided to shift to chemistry for graduate school. That is why I earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at UC Berkeley: because I think chemistry is fun. While some would consider Caltech and UC Berkeley to be "elite" schools based on their rankings, I am no elitist. I think everyone should have the opportunity to get the best education they possibly can, and tutoring (with me, of course) is an efficient, cost-effective way to help make it happen.

I love to teach folks science and math, especially chemistry. I live for the moments when I guide someone through a subject until something "clicks" in their mind. Learning science is learning how to see the world around us with fresh eyes. For example, after studying thermodynamics at Caltech, I started thinking about every day phenomena from an analytical standpoint: things like boiling a pot of water or washing something in soapy water suddenly became much more interesting.

I have three semesters of experience as a TA/graduate student instructor: one semester teaching organic chemistry and two teaching the graduate-level X-ray crystallography course. While at ExxonMobil, I led several chemistry-related training courses for technical folks like engineers and other chemists.
Sometimes I can get a little animated when I'm interested in the subject matter. Excitement can be contagious, and I find students are a little more engaged when I nerd out about the lesson of the day.