Timothy Connor

Biography

I started my academic journey at Diablo Valley College before transferring to UC Irvine to complete my undergraduate degree in chemistry. I then went on to pursue graduate study in nuclear chemistry with the express purpose of assisting the transition to clean energy in the US. In the course of this effort, I conducted research on the safe disposal of nuclear waste in partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory and Forsuchungzentrum Jülich in Germany, culminating in the completion of a master’s degree in chemistry from UC Irvine.

In addition to being a career research scientist, education has grown in importance to me over the years. I first worked as a professional tutor in the year between completing my undergraduate education and starting graduate school, where I tutored for high school chemistry and SAT/ACT prep. I went on to teach general chemistry and nuclear chemistry at the university level as a teaching assistant during graduate school. I immediately found helping students achieve academic success to be extremely rewarding, in addition to it being very enjoyable to teach the subject I had poured so much effort into mastering. As such I am dedicated to helping students achieve academic and professional success, and to training the next generation of scientists.

This background has armed me with an extremely deep theoretical understanding of chemistry, combined with excellent practical skills in mathematics developed in the study of the sciences. This, combined with my teaching experience, gives me the skills to give extremely clear explanations both in scientific concepts and problem-solving techniques. However, even more than academic mastery, my strongest skill as a tutor is in observing and listening to a student to determine precisely what their disconnect is on a given concept or problem and then tailoring my help to address their specific case. It is for this reason that I prefer one on one tutoring to teaching entire classes, as in the context of tutoring I can devote the entirety of my attention to a single student’s challenges and address them accordingly. Having worked my way through the high intensity environment of graduate research with many competing priorities such as classes, teaching, and research, I am also prepared to teach students to successfully manage the myriad of priorities required to be academically and professionally successful.

In addition to my focus on scientific research and education, I am an avid motorcyclist, an aspiring fantasy and science fiction writer, and enjoy tabletop roleplaying games.