Laurie S. Starkey

Dr. Starkey earned her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Connecticut in 1991 and her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from ULCA in 1996. She has been teaching Organic Chemistry and Organic Synthesis at Cal Poly Pomona since 1996. Dr. Starkey's teaching has been recognized with the Provost's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2013 and the College of Science's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2000. Her research interests are focused in the area of chemical education, especially in the use of technology in teaching and learning. She has developed a series of online laboratory tutorials and animations (http://www.cpp.edu/~lsstarkey/ochemlab), a variety of hands-on experiments for kids (http://www.youtube.com/user/ChemistryConnected), a question repository for classroom response systems and other active-learning resources (http://www.cpp.edu/~lsstarkey/local), and a complete series of online organic chemistry lectures (https://www.educator.com/learn/chemistry/organic-chemistry/starkey/). Her approach in "Introduction to Strategies for Organic Synthesis" involves a significant amount of review of the sophomore-level material (functional group transformations, reagents and reaction mechanisms) before changing the perspective and attempting to plan a synthesis (functional group analysis and making strategic disconnections: the retrosynthesis of a target molecule). Simply put, taking a year of organic chemistry does not make you an organic chemist, so this review is an essential element for most students! This book is designed as an intermediate-level introduction to the tools and skills needed to study organic synthesis. It contains detailed solutions to over 300 problems (including both worked-through examples within each chapter, in-chapter practice problems and end-of-chapter problems), so it is ideal for any student who is interested in pursuing research in the field of organic chemistry, including beginning graduate students. With its thorough review of the reactions of organic chemistry and its study guide approach, this book can also build confidence as it deepens students' knowledge and prepares them for advanced coursework. Providing advanced undergraduates and graduate students with a stepping stone from beginning level Organic Chemistry courses to organic synthesis research and/or graduate level coursework, this book teaches the practical skills of making logical retrosynthetic disconnections, while reviewing basic organic transformations, reactions, and reactivities. The book is written to help undergraduates feel comfortable performing retrosynthetic analysis of a target molecule and subsequently develop more secure understanding of organic chemistry reactions overall.