Curriculum Vitae

Ph.D. in Computational Physical Chemistry, University of Arkansas, 2015 - 2020.

Dissertation: Predicting the Hydration Free Energy of Small Alkanes and Alcohols from Custom, Electronic Structure-Based Force Fields; Appendix 1; Appendix 2

Defense slides (If you're actually interested in these slides, my personal non-PDF version has cool videos, GIFs, and animations.)

B.S. in Physics, minor in Philosophy, University of Central Arkansas, 2010 - 2015.

• 2021 - Present: Researcher and lead project manager at TRR Designs.

• 2015 - 2020: Computational chemistry lab of Prof. Feng Wang (University of Arkansas). Development of molecular mechanics force fields using Adaptive Force Matching procedures for simulations and solvation free energy predictions of small molecules. Computations and/or analyses with the following programs, software, or languages: Gaussian, Molpro, GAMESS, VASP, GROMACS, CRYOFF, SAPT, perl, bash, python, and gnuplot.

• 2019 - 2020: Visiting scholar in theoretical chemistry lab of Prof. Mark Tuckerman (New York University). Implement Adaptive Force Matching for organic molecular crystals as an approach to automatic development of ab initio-quality force fields for crystal structure prediction. These computations relied heavily on CP2K.

• 2014 - 2015: NSF REU research assistant to Prof. Feng Wang. (This work transitioned into my graduate work in the same lab. See bullet point 2015-2020 above.)

• 2013 - 2014: NSF REU research assistant to Prof. Charles Edwin Webster (then at University of Memphis). Technical experience includes: computational molecular model drawing; computational geometry optimizations and transition state searches via Gaussian. 

• 2011 - 2015: Benchtop research assistant in lab of Prof. Patrick Desrochers (University of Central Arkansas). Technical experience includes: microwave synthesis; manipulations under inert atmospheres; reactions in glovebox; diffuse reflectance, electronic, IR, and NMR spectroscopies; quantitative assays. 

6. "Hands-on Model for Investigating Entropy and Disorder in the Classroom" T. Ryan Rogers; The Physics Teacher, 61 (6): 439–443 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1119/5.0089761

AIP's interview write-up

5. “Accurate MP2-based force fields predict hydration free energies for simple alkanes and alcohols in good agreement with experiments”, T. Ryan Rogers & Feng Wang, The Journal of Chemical Physics, 153, 244505 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0035032

4. “Comparing alchemical free energy estimates to experimental values based on the Ben-Naim formula: How much agreement can we expect?” T. Ryan Rogers & Feng Wang, The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 124, 840-847, (2020); https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.9b08965

3. “Performing the Millikan experiment at the molecular scale: Determination of atomic Millikan- Thomson charges by computationally measuring atomic forces.” T. Ryan Rogers & Feng Wang, The Journal of Chemical Physics, 147, 161726, (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5001254

2. “Possible Evidence for a New Form of Liquid Buried in the Surface Tension of Supercooled Water.” T. Ryan Rogers, Kai-Yang Leong & Feng Wang, Scientific Reports, 6, 33284, (2016); https://doi.org/10.1038/srep33284

Experimental confirmation of our predictions

1. “Rapid Synthesis of a Functional Resin-Supported Scorpionate and its Copper(I,II), Rhodium(I), and Chromium(III) Complexes.” Patrick J. Desrochers, Adam Pearce, T. Ryan Rogers & Jeremy K. Rodman, European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, 2465–2473, (2016); https://doi.org/10.1002/ejic.201501254

• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow (2017 - 2020)

• University of Arkansas Distinguished Doctoral Fellow (2015 - 2019)

• University of Arkansas Wally Cordes Teaching Award for chemistry graduate students (2016 - 2017)

• 1st place award for Chemistry/Biochemistry oral presentation at the annual INBRE conference (2014)

• Tony Jude award for best poster (2014)

• Arkansas Academy of Science (AAS) award for best undergraduate poster (2014)

• Outstanding Research Presentation award, 33rd Annual Undergraduate Research Conference, University of Memphis (2013)

• University of Central Arkansas Presidential Scholar (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)

• University of Central Arkansas Trustee’s Scholarship (2010 - 2014)

• Boy Scouts of America Eagle Scout (2008)

• Boy Scouts of America Brotherhood in Order of the Arrow