CV | Alex Jonathan Roche, PhD | Rutgers University

Alex Jonathan Roche
Associate Professor of Chemistry (July 2006 – Present)
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Department of Chemistry, 315 Penn St, Camden, New Jersey. 08102. Tel: (856) 225-6166.

Education and Preparation
July 2008 – June 2013: Chair of the Chemistry Department
July 2006 – Present: Associate Professor
Jan 2000 – June 2006: Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Rutgers.
June 1999 – Dec 1999: Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Rutgers, The State University, Camden Campus.
Jan 1996 – Dec 1998: Post-Doctoral research position at the University of Florida, U.S.A., under the supervision of Prof. W.R. Dolbier, Jr.
Oct 1995 – Dec 1995: 3 month collaboration with Prof. Neil Bartlett (visiting University of Durham, U.K., whilst on sabbatical from Berkeley University, U.S.A.).
Sept 1992 – Sept 1995: Ph.D. in Organofluorine Chemistry, under the supervision of Prof. R.D. Chambers, University of Durham, U.K. Thesis entitled “Chemistry of 2H-Heptafluorobut-2-ene”.
1989 – 1992: B.Sc. (Hons). in Chemistry (Class 1) from the University of Durham, U.K.

Research Interests
The synthesis, characterization and application of unusual and interesting fluorinated organic molecules. A specific curiosity is the preparation of fluorinated versions of well studied organic molecules, and examining the repercussions and impact of introducing fluorine atoms into such molecules.

Teaching Awards
•Recipient of the Provost’s Teaching Excellence Award, May 2002. The award is “in recognition for his interest and innovations in teaching as demonstrated by his reputation with students and peers”.
•Nominated to “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers” 2002/03 and 2003/04.
•Recipient of “Outstanding Professor” Award from graduating science majors of class 2008, presented at Rutgers Gala May 17th 2008.

Teaching Responsibilities at Rutgers
• “Organic Chemistry I” One semester undergraduate organic chemistry class.
• “Organic Chemistry II” One semester undergraduate organic chemistry class.
• “Fluorocarbons” One semester graduate organic chemistry class.
• “Organic Mechanisms: Nucleophiles & Bases” One semester graduate organic class.
• “Organic Mechanisms: Electrophiles & Acids” One semester graduate organic class.
• “Organic Mechanisms: Radicals” One semester graduate organic class.
• “Competence In Chemistry” A written and oral ‘exit exam’ required for all graduating Chemistry Major Seniors.
• “Chemical Principles” One semester undergraduate introductory chemistry class.

Recent Federal Grant Activity
9/01 – 8/04   ($240,980). (PI). National Science Foundation “Acquisition of a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance System” (CHE-0116145)
2/06 – 1/09    ($228,703). (PI). National Science Foundation CRIF:MU “Acquisition of a High Performance Liquid Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry (HPLC – MS) System” (CHE-0541663)
8/07 – 7/10   ($415,369) National Science Foundation (IOS-0724962) “Thyroid Hormone Physiology in Adult Rat Brain,” PI = Joseph V. Martin; co-PI =Alex J. Roche
7/09 – 7/12 ($491,007 ) National Science Foundation (DUE-0856435) “Q-STEP: Community of Quantitative Scientists at Rutgers-Camden” PI = Joseph V. Martin; co-PI =Alex J. Roche
8/12 – 6/15    ($92,299) continuation to above National Science Foundation (DUE-0856435) “Q-STEP: Community of Quantitative Scientists at Rutgers-Camden” PI = Joseph V. Martin; co-PI =Alex J. Roche
6/15 – 6/16    no cost extension to above National Science Foundation (DUE-0856435) “Q-STEP: Community of Quantitative Scientists at Rutgers-Camden” PI = Joseph V. Martin; co-PI =Alex J. Roche

Contributions to Academic Profession
• Journal Reviewer for “Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry”, “Journal of Fluorine Chemistry”, “Chemical Communications”, ” Journal of Physical Chemistry”, “Synthesis and Reactivity in Inorganic and Metal-OrganicChemistry” “Future Medicinal Chemistry” and “Applied Radiation and Isotopes”
•Grant reviewer for the National Science Foundation.
•Consultancy work for FatEarth, Inc. concerning the environmental fate of certain fluoroelastomer products found in various adhesives and printer ink, and Specialty Chemical Services (S.C.S) concerned with 19F NMR detection of impurities in an industrial chemical.
•Member of American Chemical Society 1999- present.

Masters Research Students

Graduated Sp 18 Kholod Dahashi “Integration of the NMR”
Graduated Sp 13 Sheryl Rabinowitz “Chiral Fluorinated Phanes”
Graduated Sp 08 Jean Pierre Pinto “Upscale Synthesis of Symmetrical and Unsymmetrical …”
Graduated Sp 07 Anne Loyle “Monomers towards CF3-PPV”
Graduated Sp 06 Alexander Marchione “NMR Analysis of Fluorinated Phanes
Graduated Sp 06 Anna Seixas “Exotic Fluorinated Phanes”
Graduated Fall 04 Belgin Canturk “Fluorinated Dicyclophanes”

High School Teachers (with Partners In Science Program)
Dusty Kopenhaver Summer 01 and Summer 02
Christina Dare Summer 00 and Summer 01

Undergraduate Researchers

Fall 19 – Sp 20 Salsabill Subah “Multidimensional NMR”

Fall 19 – Sp 20 Jackson Luu “Water content in IL’s”

Fall 18 – Sp 19 Kristen Smith “Wheel of Death/Study Guides”

Fall 17 – Sp18 Ayesha Saleem “H-F Heteronuclear NMR Experiments”

Fall 17 – Sp18 Mario Rivera “H-F NOE Experiments”

Sp 17-Sp17 Rob Kirsten “New Organic Education Resources”

Fall 16 – Sp17 Wasif Peerzada ” The NMR 400MHz NMR”

Fall 09 – Sp 10 Kasey Cox “Chiral NMR of Cyclophanes”

Fall 07 – Sp 09 Renee Solimeo “T3 detection and Synthesis of Related Iodinated Compounds”

Sum 07 – Sp 08 Lindesy Glaspey “HPLCMS Installation”

Fall 03 – Sp 06 Jean-Pierre Pinto “CF3-PPV”

Fall 03 – Sp 05 Sheryl Rabinowitz “NMR Analysis of Fluorinated Phanes”

Sp 03 – Sp 04 Ali Shahrokh “Exotic Fluorinated Phanes”

Fall 02 – Fall 04 Shirin Modarai “Dicyclophane Synthesis”

Fall 02 – Sp 03 Meredith Corson “Novel Display Technologies”

Fall 02 – Sp 03 Tina DiGiovanni “Novel Display Technologies”

Sp 01 – Sp 02 Anne Loyle “Trifluoromethylated Polymers”

Sp 00 – Sp 02 Belgin Canturk “Fluorinated Dicyclophanes”

Sp 00 Joseph Molinaro “Approaches toward Planar Chiral Ligands”

Fall 99 – Sp 01 Anna Seixas “Synthesis of Exotic Fluorinated Phanes”

Fall 99 Denise Bell “Fluorinated Phanes: X-ray Studies”

Advisor: Library Thesis Masters
Travis Jones 2018, Connor Rademaker 2017; Volodymyr Romanchuk 2016; Hong Liu 2015; Allison Vaughan 2014; Kenneth Berry 2013; Michael Poot 2012; Michelle Prough 2009; Maria Reed 2008; Roman Martinez 2008.

Masters Research Thesis Committee Member
Amnah Hadadi 2017; Jinnie Anstice 2017; Tyler Butler 2017; Sean Taylor 2016; Azzah Alzahrani 2016; Asma Obaid 2016; Kathryn Ribay 2015; Jun Dai 2014; Paul Rementer 2014; Morgan Zeilinski 2013; Muslum Demur 2013; Steven Middler 2009; Alice Chin 2007; Yogesh Patel 2005; James Wilking 2002; Yaw Boaten 2001; Aihua Fu 2001; Yolanda Liszewski 2001.

Students in Dr. Roche’s research group have received the following awards:
Graduate Awards
•Alumni Award for Academic Achievement, April 2006: Alexander Marchione
•Alumni Award for Academic Achievement, April 2005: Belgin Canturk
•American Chemical Society Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research, August 2004: Anne Loyle

Undergraduate Awards
•Sanofi Aventis Undergraduate Research Sholarship: 2009/10: Casey Cox
•John C. Collier Research Sholarship: Spring 2008: Renee Solimeo
•Dean’s Undergraduate Research Prize, April 2005: Sheryl Rabinowitz
•American Chemical Society Scholars Program, June 2004 – Present: Jean Pierre Pinto
•Rutgers Undergraduate Research Fellow, 2002/03: Meredith Corson
•Rutgers Undergraduate Research Fellow, 2002/03: Tina DiGiovanni
•Dean’s Undergraduate Research Prize, April 2003: Anne Loyle

Contributions to the University
•Member, Academic Policy & Course Study Committee 2008-2009, and 2014- present. (Chair 2018- present)
•Chair of the Information Services Committee 2007 – 2012
•Scheduling Taskforce Member 2009-2010
•Dean’s Working Group on the “Future of Arts and Sciences 2012” Committee 2009 – 2011
•Dean’s Undergraduate Conference / Travel Award Selection Committee 2004 – 2011
•Chancellor’s Dual Enrollment Committee 2010 – 2012.
•Excellence in Undergraduate Education Ad Hoc Working group 2009 – present
•Research Scholarship Subcommittee 2007 – present.
•Celebration of Undergraduate Research Activity (CURCA) committee 2007 – 2011.
•Member, Learning Resource Center Council 2003 – 2011
•Dean’s Undergraduate Research Award Selection Committee 2001 – 2011
•Chemistry Chemical and Laboratory Safety Officer 2001 – 2010
•Senator, CCAS Senate 2002, 03, 05.
•Faculty Advisor of ACS Student Affiliates Chapter 2000, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05.
•Chem. Club Faculty Advisor 2003, 04, and co-advisor 2001, 02. (The Chem. Club has been able to host Undergraduate Research Symposia, and put on multiple annual chemistry displays, and “chem. demos” for visitors to this campus e.g. high school students, “Mathfest” participants).
•2000-08, secretary for Chemistry Department Faculty Meetings, taking notes and minutes, and distributing the approved minutes to its members.
•Qualified user of the RIAS Procure-to-Pay application, 2002.
•Actively helps to organize, and plays in, intramural soccer competitions. The team is usually made up of science majors, faculty and members of the FAS Dean’s office. (Their impressive recent record is as follows: Rutgers-Camden Indoor 5-aside Intramural Soccer: Sp 04 Champions; Sp 03 Champions; Sp 02 Champions; Sp 01 Champions; Sp 00 Champions. Rutgers-Camden Outdoor Intramural 7-aside Soccer: Fall 04 Champions; Fall 03 champions; Fall 02 Champions; Fall 01 Champions).

Other
The candidate plays soccer for Moorestown Soccer Club, in the South Jersey Adult Soccer League (SJASL, Spring and Summer seasons). (28th Annual James R. Moyer Trophy Champions, 2002; 27th Annual James R. Moyer Trophy Champions, 2001); and also for MFC, in the Philadelphia Cricket League (Fall seasons). (Fall 2003 Champions). This league has the prestige of being the oldest established soccer league (est. 1902) in the USA.

Published Conference Abstracts
•Roche, Alex J.; Loyle, Anne D.; Pinto, Jean P. Synthesis, characterization and polymerization of monomers towards bridge trifluoromethylated poly(p-phenylenevinylene). Abstracts of Papers, 228th ACS National Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, United States, August 22-26, 2004 (2004).
•Canturk, Belgin; Roche, Alex J. Pd -catalyzed Suzuki cross-coupling reaction in the synthesis of bridge fluorinated dicyclophanes. Abstracts of Papers, 226th ACS National Meeting, New York, NY, United States, September 7-11, 2003 (2003).
•Canturk, Belgin; Roche, Alex. Approaches toward fluorinated dicyclophanes. Abstracts, 36th Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Princeton, NJ, United States, June 8-11 (2003).
•Dolbier, William R.; Duan, Jian-Xin; Roche, Alex J. Octafluoro[2.2]paracyclophane (AF4): Synthesis and the process of technology transfer. Book of Abstracts, 219th ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, March 26-30, 2000 (2000).

Preprints
•Alex J Roche, Anne D Loyle, Jean-Pierre Pinto, “Synthesis, characterization and polymerization of monomers towards bridge trifluoromethylated poly(p-phenylenevinylene).” Polymer Prep. (American Chemical Society, Division of Polymer Chemistry) (2004), 45(2), 108-109.

Conference Presentations
•17th Winter Fluorine Conference, Jan 2005, Florida, USA. Oral.
•17th Winter Fluorine Conference, Jan 2005, Florida, USA. Poster.
•14th European Symposium on Fluorine Chemistry, July 2004, Poznan, Poland. Poster.
•“A Celebration of Fluorine Chemistry”, July 2001, Durham City, U.K. Oral.
•15th Winter Fluorine Conference, Jan 2001, Florida, USA. Poster.
•8th Symposium on the Latest Trends in Organic Synthesis, Oct 1998, Florida, USA. Poster.
•FLACS Conference, May 1998, Orlando, Florida. Oral.
•11th European Symposium on Fluorine Chemistry, Sept. 1995 Bled, Slovenia. Poster.

Students from the Roche group have also presented their research at the following:
•Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (CURCA) April 2010
Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (CURCA) April 2008
•Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (CURCA) April 2007
•228th American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting, Philadelphia, PA. August 22-26, 2004.
•226th American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting, New York, NY, September 7-11, 2003.
•36th Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (MARM, ACS), Princeton, NJ, June 8-11, 2003.
•Rutgers Undergraduate Research Fellowship Presentation, New Brunswick, NJ. April 23 2003.
•Undergraduate Research Openhouse, Rutgers, Camden, NJ. April 8, 2003.
•Philadelphia Section American Chemical Society, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. Jan 16, 2003.
•11th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, Rutgers, Camden, NJ. April 26, 2002.
•10th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, Rutgers, Camden, NJ. April 19, 2001.

Book Chapters
•Dolbier, W. R., Duan, J.-X., Roche, A. J. and Zhang, L. (2013) “Preparation of 1,1,2,2,9,9,10,10-Octafluoro[2.2]paracyclophane and Perfluoro[2.2]paracyclophane”, in Efficient Preparations of Fluorine Compounds (ed. H. W. Roesky), John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, USA. Chapter 53: pages 343-348.

Refereed Papers
•Alex J. Roche, Khalil A. Abboud, William R. Dolbier, Jr., “The unexpected formation of 9,9,10,10-tetrafluoro-1,2,4,12-tetraphenyl[2.2]paracyclophan-1-ene” Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2015, 80(10), 5355-5358.
•Alex J. Roche “Palladium catalyzed Cross- and Homo-coupling reactions of 4-Halo-1,1,2,2,9,9,10,10-Octafluoro[2.2]Paracyclophanes with various Organometallic reagents” Journal of Fluorine Chemistry, 175, 2015, 1-5.
•Alex J. Roche, Sheryl A. Rabinowitz, Kasey A. Cox “Efficient NMR enantiodiscrimination of bridge Fluorinated Paracyclophanes using Lanthanide tris ?-diketonate complexes” Tetrahedron: Asymmetry, 2013, (24), 1382-1388.
•Alex J. Roche, Alexander A. Marchione “Discrimination of Pseudo meta and Pseudo para diamino-octafluoro[2.2]paracyclophanes by 1H, 19F, and 13C NMR” Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry, 2012, 50, 809-812.
•Luke Burke, Grazia Gonella, Fenton Heirtzler, Hai-Lung Dai, Stephanie Jones, Jon Zubieta and Alex J. Roche, “A Self-assembled, Metalloorganic Supramolecular Frequency Doubler”, Chem. Commun., 2012, 48 (7), 1000 – 1002.
•Alex J. Roche, Alexander A. Marchione “Investigation of the correlations between 19F and 1H NMR signals for various mono- and di-substituted octafluoro[2.2]paracyclophanes” Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry, 2009, 47, 428-436.
•Alex J. Roche, Alexander A. Marchione, Sheryl A. Rabinowitz, “Full Multinuclear Resonance Analysis of 4-Amino-1,1,2,2,9,9,10,10 -Octafluoro[2.2]Paracyclophane” Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry, 2005, 43, 1016-1022.
•Alex J. Roche, Belgin Canturk, “Suzuki Aryl Cross Coupling Chemistry using Derivatives of 1,1,2,2,9,9,10,10-Octafluoro[2.2]Paracyclophane” Journal of Fluorine Chemistry (2005), 126(4), 483-490.
•Alex J. Roche, Belgin Canturk, “An Exploration of Suzuki Aryl Cross Coupling Chemistry Involving [2.2]Paracyclophane Derivatives.” Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 2005, 3, 515-519.
•Alex J. Roche, “Complete Assignment of 19F, 1H and 13C NMR Spectra of Monomers and Precursors Towards Bridge Trifluoromethylated poly(p-phenylenevinylene)” Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry 2004, (42), 944-949.
•Alex J Roche, Anne D Loyle, Jean-Pierre Pinto, “Preparation of symmetrical and unsymmetrical monomers towards bridge trifluoromethylated poly(p-phenylenevinylene)”. Journal of Fluorine Chemistry (2004), 125(10), 1473-1480.

For the papers above in italics, all the co-authors are either undergraduate or masters students and graduates from Rutgers, Camden.

•William R. Dolbier, Jr., Jian-Xin Duan and Alex J. Roche, “Process for the preparation of derivatives of Octafluoro[2.2]Paracyclophane”, USP 6,392,097, 2002.
•Alex J. Roche, Jian-Xin Duan, William R. Dolbier, Jr., and Khalil. A. Abboud, “The First Synthesis and Characterization of Both Diastereomers of a Di[2.2]paracyclophane:4,4′-Bis(1,1,2,2,9,9,10,10octafluoro[2.2]paracyclophane)”, Journal of Organic Chemistry, 66, 2001, 7055-7058.
•Alex J. Roche and William R. Dolbier, Jr., “Multiple Electrophilic Substitution of 1,1,2,2,9,9,10,10-Octafluoro [2.2] Paracyclophane”, Journal of Organic Chemistry, 65, 2000, 5282-5290.
•William R. Dolbier, Jr., Jian-Xin Duan and Alex J. Roche “A Novel, Non-High Dilution Method for Preparation of 1,1,2,2,9,9,10,10-Octafluoro[2.2]paracyclophane”, Organic Letters, 2, (13), 2000, 1867-1869.
•Alex J. Roche and William R. Dolbier, Jr., “Electrophilic Substitution of 1,1,2,2,9,9,10,10-Octafluoro [2.2] Paracyclophane”, Journal of Organic Chemistry, 64, 1999, 9137-9143.
•A.V. Kachur, W.R. Dolbier Jr., S.M. Evans, C.Y. Shiue, G.G. Shiue, K.A. Skov, I.R. Baird, B.R. James, A.R. Li, A. Roche and C.J. Koch, “Synthesis of new hypoxia markers EF1 and [F-18]-EF1″, Applied Radiation and Isotopes, 51, (6), 1999, 643-650.
•William R. Dolbier, Jr., Jian-Xin Duan and Alex J. Roche, “Parylene AF4 Synthesis”, USP 5,841,005, 1998.
•Neil Bartlett, Richard. D Chambers, Alex J. Roche, Robert C. H. Spink, Lisa Chacon and J. Marc Whalen, “ New Fluorination of Organic Compounds using thermodynamically unstable nickel fluorides”, J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun., 1996, 1049-1050.
•Richard D. Chambers, Alex J. Roche and Michael H. Rock, “Cycloaddition reactions involving Hexafluorobut-2-yne and (Z)-2H-Heptafluorobut-2-ene”, Journal of the Chemical Society, Perkin Trans. 1, 1996, 1095-1100.
•Richard D. Chambers and Alex J. Roche, “(Z)-2H-Heptafluorobut-2-ene as a Synthon for the Corresponding -Butyne”, Journal of Fluorine Chemistry, 79, 1996, 139-143.
•Richard D. Chambers and Alex J. Roche, “Eliminations from (Z)-2H-Heptafluorobut-2-ene”, Journal of Fluorine Chemistry, 79, 1996, 121-124.
•Richard D. Chambers, Alex J. Roche and Julian F.S. Vaughan, “Novel By-Products in the Synthesis of (Z)-2H-Heptafluorobut-2-ene”, Canadian Journal of Chemistry, 74, 1996, 1925-1929.
•Richard D. Chambers, Steven J. Mullins, Alex J. Roche and Julian F. S. Vaughan, “Direct Syntheses of Pentakis(trifluoromethyl)cyclopentadienide Salts and related Dienes”, J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun., 1995, 841-842.
•R. D. Chambers, J. F. S. Vaughan, S. J. Mullins, T. Nakamura and A. J. Roche, “Fluorinated Dienes”, Journal of Fluorine Chemistry, 72, 1995, 231-233.
•Richard D. Chambers, Alex J. Roche, Andrei S. Batsanov and Judith A. K. Howard, “1,8-Diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene as a Difunctional Nucleophile”, J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun., 1994, 2055-2056.