Olivet Nazarene University

Douglas Armstrong

Dr. Douglas Armstrong, professor of chemistry, earned the B.S. degree in chemistry, with honors in chemistry, from Indiana University, and the Ph.D. degree in the area of organic (medicinal) chemistry from the University of Iowa, followed by postdoctoral research in the synthesis of penicillins and cephalosporins at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He serves as a mentor of student research. He is a member of the International Society of

Heterocyclic Chemistry and the American Chemical Society, in which he has held offices in the Northeast and Joliet Sections. He is active in the Associated Colleges of the Chicago Area and has coordinated three courses for that organization. He is a regular participant in the meetings of the "Midwest Association of Chemistry Teachers in Liberal Arts Colleges," which seeks to improve the teaching of chemistry in the small liberal arts college environment.

His research has included a full year (Sept.,1999 to August 2000) of sabbatical research at Purdue University in organic syntheses, under Nobel Laureate Dr. Herbert C. Brown and under Dr. David Nichols. He has done organic synthetic research during the summers of 1999 and 2001- 2005 in large universities and one industry. That research, along with research on his own, has resulted in several publications and presentations, as follows:

1. Oral Presentation #61, “Microwave-assisted Syntheses of Heterocyclic Compounds,”Division of Polymer Chemistry, 236th National American Chemical Society Meeting, August, 2008, Philadelphia, Penn.

2. Invited Lecture, “Mesoionic Compounds: Definition, Syntheses and Pharmacological Activities of Selected Examples,” Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, April 11, 2008.

3. Poster # PP-17, “Investigations into 1,1,1-trifluoro-N-quinolin-8-ylmethanesulfonamide as a Potential Antibacterial Agent and Potential Therapeutic Agent for Huntington’s Disease,”10th International Conference on the Chemistry of Antibiotics and other Bioactive Compounds, Vanderbilt University, August, 2007.

4. "Pyrrole Syntheses Based on Titanium-Catalyzed Hydroamination of Diynes," Organic Letters, 2004, Vol. 6, No. 17, 2957-2960.

5. "Quaternary trialkyl(polyfluoroalkyl)ammonium Salts Including Liquid Iodides,"Tetrahedron Letters, 44, 9367-9370 (2003).

6. Poster #11-PO-12, "Pyrrole Derivatives via Catalytic Hydroamination of 1,4- and 1,5- Diynes," 19th International Congress of Heterocyclic Chemistry, Colorado State University, 2003.

During the summers and academic years of 2005-2008, Dr. Armstrong mentored the research of ONU students in projects involving the synthesis of compounds designed for potential treatment of Huntington's Disease, and other compounds expected to lead to novel cyclopropyl derivatives. Part of this research was sponsored by ONU's Pence-Boyce Program. More recently, his research has included the area of microwave-assisted organic syntheses, using ONU’s Biotage Microwave Instrument (the “Initiator” model).