Saint Mary's

Dr. Rob Singer is a Chemistry Professor at Saint Mary's and an award-winning leader in Green Chemistry. He sees great promise in the contribution of waste biomass to local, high tech and manufacturing processes.

Dr. Singer and his team of researchers specialize in Catalysis and Biomass Processing in Ionic Liquids, with other interests in Asymmetric Synthesis, Organometallic Reagents in Organic Synthesis, and Synthetic Methodology. Their research in this area benefits from funding through a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery grant.

Since arriving at Saint Mary’s in 1993 as an assistant professor, Dr. Singer has employed more than 120 undergraduate research assistants, including 30 honours students, 3 masters students, a doctoral student, and 11 post-doctoral fellows. His research has attracted over 9.5 million dollars of funding from a variety of internal and external sources, including NSERC, the Petroleum Research Fund (PRF), the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Pfizer Pharmaceutical, Glaxo-Smith-Kline Australia, and Petroleum Research Atlantic Canada (PRAC).

A native of Nova Scotia, Dr. Singer earned his B.Sc. Honours (First Class) at Saint Mary's in 1986. After completing a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry with an NSERC PGS Award at Simon Fraser University in 1992, he accepted an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at the Universität Marburg in Germany.

As a faculty member in Saint Mary’s University’s Department of Chemistry, Dr. Singer has taught a wide variety of undergraduate Chemistry courses and a selection of graduate level courses in the Masters of Applied Science program. He is involved in a number of community outreach activities, such as making annual presentations at the regional high school science teacher's conference, organizing high school tours of the Faculty of Science, lecturing at high schools on Green Chemistry, and participation in the Molecules of Life Elementary School Outreach Program. A highly regarded teacher and leader, he is a recipient of the Father William Stewart S.J. Medal for Excellence in Teaching and is a former member the University's Academic Senate and Board of Governors.

Dr. Robert Singer's Affiliations

Canadian Green Chemistry Network