Sean Michael Ragan

13004 S. Madrone Trl.

Austin, TX 78737

(512)775-5725

iamanangelchaser@yahoo.com

http://www.seanmichaelragan.com

Last Updated 2008-05-15

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Objective

To work in a creatively open, intellectually challenging, and friendly scientific atmosphere in either an academic or industrial setting.

Academic Background

University of Texas at Austin, August 2002 – Presejt

- Master of Science Program, Chemistry, September 2005 – Present

- Bachelor of Science, Chemistry, 3.70 GPA, May 2005

University of Texas at Austin, August 1996 – December 1999

- Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy

- History Minor

- 3.77 GPA

University of Texas at Dallas, August 1994 – August 1996

- Cognitive Science Major

- 3.68 GPA

- Full Scholarship

Research Experience

Research Associate, Eric V. Anslyn, UT, January 2006 – January 2008

- Conducting original research into the use of substituted hydrazine arrays for urinalytic detection of idiosyncratic drug response.

- Maintaining anhydrous solvent delivery system and group PC network.

Research Assistant, Stephen F. Martin, UT, May 2004 – January 2005

- Assisted in the development of methods for conjugate addition to α,β-unsaturated lactams and the exploitation of these methods for natural product synthesis.

- Worked under graduate student Martin Petterson on improvements to the total synthesis of Rynchophylline.

Research Assistant, David VandenBout, UT, March 2003 – February 2004

- Assisted in research intended to directly measure the photobleaching rate of Rhodamine 6G.

- Wrote Standard Operating Procedures for 9 laboratory lasers in accordance with university and state safety regulations.

- Compiled exhaustive laboratory chemical inventory.

Clarke Research Fellow, University of Texas at Dallas, Summer 1994 & 1995

- Worked under Dr. Richard Golden in UTD’s department of Cognitive Science. At the time, Dr. Golden’s work concerned modeling text comprehension and recall behaviors in children.

- Assisted in debugging user interface for Dr. Golden’s DIGRAPH and MAKEDIG software packages, tools intended for use by researchers interested in generating directed-graph models of text features.

- Authored draft of user’s manual for MAKEDIG and DIGRAPH software packages.

- Participated in graduate- and post-graduate-level Text Comprehension Models Seminar conducted by Dr. Golden, and presented a 1980 paper on prose readability to Dr. Golden and his students.

- Assisted Ms. Rebecca Horn, one of Dr. Golden’s doctoral students, in the administration of her research into text-recall patterns in college students.

- Designed visual presentation of DIGRAPH software operating process for use by Dr. Golden at the 1995 convention of the Society for Text and Discourse.

- Co-authored talk delivered by Dr. Golden at the 1995 annual convention of the Society for Text and Discourse.

- Received formal acknowledgment in Dr. Golden’s 1997 paper “Causal network analysis validation using synthetic recall protocols, published in Behavior Research, Methods, Instruments, & Computers.

Skills

HTML/Web design

2D & 3D Network Modeling

ChemDraw, MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator

Patent Application Research and Preparation

Reading proficiency in Spanish.

Bench synthesis under inert atmosphere/anhydrous conditions.

NMR/IR/MS/GC/HPLC interpretation

Tutoring

Awards & Honors

Pfizer Global Research and Development Award, Fall 2004 & Spring 2005

University Co-operative Society Undergraduate Research Fellowship Award, 2004-2005

Summer Undergraduate Research Stipend, Summer 2004

Adele Steiner Burleson Writing Competition, UT Austin English Department

- 3^rd Prize for Essay, Spring 2003, “A Utilitarian Considers War.”

- 1^t Prize for Nonfiction, Spring 1999. “The Ephemeralization of Educational Objectives by the Info-structure.”

- 3^rd Prize for Criticism, Spring 1999. “Undoing Ourselves.”

- 3^rd Prize for Fiction, Spring 1999. “The Initiation of The Navigator.”

- 1^st Prize for Nonfiction, Spring 1997. “Writing as a Psychedelic Experience.”

Quoted, The Wall Street Journal, October 17, 2003, p. W1, “The Low Life.”

Employment

Teaching Assistant, University of Texas at Austin, September 2005 – January 2008

- Taught, supervised, and/or graded in 5 distinct lab and lecture courses in physical and organic chemistry.

- Employment was per-semester, intersticed with “research only” semesters during which I was paid by Dr. Anslyn.

Property Manager, Arend Real Estate, February 2002 - June 2002

- Collected rents, served notices, scheduled maintenance, and kept books for approximately 30 commercial and residential rental properties in the Austin area.

- Also assisted in preparation and filing of various legal pleadings pursuant to divorce and child custody proceedings for owner’s small family law practice.

Events Manager, BookPeople, Inc., April 2001 - February 2002

- Worked with press agents to schedule various author in-store appearances.

- Maintained events calendar for store newsletter and webpage.

- Administered and emceed in-store author appearances.

Consultant, UT Undergraduate Writing Center, June 1997 – December 1999

- Provided assistance to UT Austin undergraduate students from all departments with any phase of the writing process, from brainstorming to proofreading.

- Helped to maintain an electronic database of student and consultation information for use in pedagogical research.

- Communicated with course instructors about students’ progress

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