Ryan Hunt

Ryan Hunt is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering. His research focuses on novel ways to use light for catalytic and synthetic purposes, with a particular focus on photobase molecules.

Ryan earned his B.S. in Chemistry with a minor in Mathematics from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. He received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Southern California, where he used ultrafast spectroscopic methods to study the kinetics of excited state proton- and electron-transfer reactions.

While at USC, Ryan taught General Chemistry through the Burg Teaching Fellowship and learned teaching methodologies at the CET Future Faculty Training Institute. Recently, Ryan was a lecturer of Thermodynamics at the University of California – Los Angeles. While at UCLA, he served as a visiting scholar, studying the thermoelectric effect in polymers. Ryan is most proud of his publication “Photodriven Deprotonation of Alcohols by a Quinoline Photobase”, published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A.