J. Scott McIndoe

J. Scott McIndoe
Professor

Office: Elliott 307 Phone: +1 (250) 721-7181 Fax: +1 (250) 721-7147 Email: mcindoe@uvic.ca

Biographical sketch. Scott McIndoe grew up in New Zealand. He completed his DPhil in synthetic organometallic chemistry at the University of Waikato under the supervision of Professor Brian Nicholson. In 1998, he took up a New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science & Technology (FRST) Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Cambridge, UK, where he worked in the group of Professor Brian Johnson FRS. In 2000, he began a college lectureship, teaching at Trinity and Newnham Colleges, Cambridge, and continued his research in the Department of Chemistry. Three years later he moved to his current position in the chemistry department at UVic, and was promoted to associate professor in 2009 and to professor in 2015.

Research Interests. The McIndoe group are interested in organometallic catalysis and synthesis, and develop and use novel mass spectrometric (and orthogonal spectroscopic) techniques to enable rapid catalyst discovery, mechanism elucidation and reaction optimisation via real-time analysis. Check out the research pages for more information. Funding has come from NSERC (Discovery, Discovery Accelerator Supplement x2, RTI, Engage, Engage+, CRD, SPG), CFI, BCKDF, ACS-PRF, MITACS, Imperial Oil URA, and the University of Victoria. A wide variety of Canadian companies have also supported the group's work, and the group continues to seek productive collaborations with industrial partners. Scott was awarded the University of Victoria's Silver Medal for Excellence in Research in 2017. In 2018, he was an Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury, NZ.

Teaching Interests. Scott’s teaching interests are focused on getting large classes engaged, enthused and thinking. He has primarily taught first year chemistry and at higher levels, inorganic and organometallic chemistry. He's responsible for getting the graduate modular courses up and running, for developing the lecture books, the revamp of the first year lab manuals, the laser-cut acrylic models used in the lab, the READ-PLAN-SOLVE-CHECK problem-solving videos, anonymous in-class questions, and blog used in first year (now in Brightspace), and for initiating the MoleculAR app. Scott won the Faculty of Science Teaching Award in 2012/3. In 2016, he was an Artist in Residence at Autodesk's Pier 9 workshop in San Francisco, where he made various scientific educational pieces including a 3D periodic table.He received the University of Victoria's highest teaching honour in 2019, the Harry Hickman Award. In 2022 he became a 3M National Teaching Fellow.

Other Interests. In his spare time, Scott enjoys hiking, cycling, strategic games, photography, building character in his three children, and making stuff.