Ryan Bettens

Ryan P. A. BETTENS (b. 1966) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science where he has taught since 2000. His current area of research interest is in theoretical and computational chemistry applied to efficient and accurate first principles energies and dynamics of large molecules as well as the modelling of complex reaction kinetics in electrochemistry. On the pedagogical front, Dr Bettens is interested in human cognition as applied to effective and efficient learning at the tertiary level, effective assessment, and imbuing students with the skill of “learning how to learn”. Prior to joining the NUS, from 1996 to 2000, he was a Research Fellow at the Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

Here his work focused on first-principles theoretical and computational chemistry. From 1994 – 1996 he was a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Ohio, U.S.A. where he worked on elucidating chemistry in space (Interstellar Chemistry) and mm-wave spectroscopy. From 1992 – 1994 he was a post-doctoral fellow at the ETH, Zürich, Switzerland utilizing Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy to study weakly bound molecular complexes. He obtained his PhD in 1992 from Monash University (Clayton Campus), Victoria, Australia where he was on a teaching scholarship. His bachelor’s degree was awarded in 1986 from the University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia. He is married to LEONG Lai Peng, Senior Lecturer in Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Science (NUS).