Derek Schipper

Derek Schipper's research is focused on tackling synthetic challenges posed in the context of conjugated organic materials. These materials are poised to make significant technological breakthroughs that will enable the advancement of flexible, lightweight, low-cost electronic devices such as photovoltaics, light emitting diodes and field-effect transistors. The performance of any device depends on the bulk properties of the active material. Improvements of the material properties arise from modification of the material on the molecular level and, therefore, stem from advances in the design and synthesis of new molecular architectures.

Derek and his research group's ability to design and construct new materials is limited only by the synthetic tools available to them. Innovative new synthetic capabilities will allow the design of novel molecular architectures and enable the ability to answer fundamental questions about structure/function relationships. Ultimately, this will lead to enhanced properties for these new materials and, therefore, improved device performances.

• Organic chemistry
• Synthetic methods
• Conjugated materials
• Catalysis
• Organic electronic materials
• Devices and Analytical Methods
• Synthetic Chemistry and Catalysis

• 2011, PhD, Chemistry, University of Ottawa, Canada
• 2006, BSc, Honours Chemistry, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada

• 2018, Angewandte Chemie International Edition Very Important Paper
• 2018, Velocity Fund Winner
• 2014, Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Organic Material Synthesis
• 2014, Thieme Chemistry Journal Award
• 2011-2013, NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship
• 2008-2011, NSERC Postgraduate Doctoral Scholarship
• 2008, NSERC Canada Graduate Masters Scholarship (Declined)
• 2007-2008, NSERC Postgraduate Masters Scholarship
• 2007-2008, University of Ottawa Excellence Award
• 2007, Ontario Graduate Scholarship (Declined)
• 2006-2007, Strategic Area of Development Award
• 2006, University of Ottawa Admission Scholarship
• 2006, Honourable Gordon L. Bennett Award
• 2006, NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award
• 2006, Maritime Inorganic Discussion Weekend Oral Presentation Award
• 2002-2006, University of Prince Edward Island Deans Honours List
• 2002-2006, University of Prince Edward Island Admission Scholarship (Renewed)
• 2005, ACS Undergraduate Analytical Chemistry Award
• 2005, Leon Loucks Memorial Award
• 2005, Dean of Science Award of Merit in Chemistry
• 2004 and 2005, NSERC Industrial Undergraduate Student Research Awards

• 2022-present, Chair, Departmental Safety Committee
• 2015-present, Graduate Advisory Committee
• 2015-present, Advisor to UWaterloo start-up Thalo
• 2014-present, Faculty of Science Foundation Committee Member
• 2015-2016, NSERC Discovery Grant External Reviewer
• 2014-2015, Departmental Safety Committee

• Member, Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology

• CHEM 262 - Organic Chemistry for Engineering
  • Taught in 2024

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• View all Derek Schipper's publications on Google Scholar.
• Monika Snowdon, Serxho Selmani, Derek J. Schipper “Sonication-Enhanced Alignment Relay Technique for the Orientation of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes.” ACS Appl. Nano Mater. 2019.
• Monika R. Kulak, Derek J. Schipper “Carbon nanotube alignment and sorting: Attempting a sulfur moiety as anchoring component.” Phosphorus, Sulfur Silicon Relat. Elem. 2019, 194, 760.
• Serxho Selmani, Derek J. Schipper “Pi-Concave Hosts for Curved Carbon Nanomaterials.” Chem. Eur. J. 2019, 25, 6673.
• Ryan Moreira, Geoffrey S. Sinclair, Derek J. Schipper “Oxidative Ring-Opening of Benzothiazole Derivatives.” Can. J. Chem. 2019, 97, 360.
• Sunmeng Wang, Derek J. Schipper “Constructing a Low-Cost Polarized Optical Microscope for Undergraduate Material-Characterization Studies.” J. Chem. Educ. 2019, 96, 823.

• April 9, 2015: Waterloo researchers awarded Canada Research Chairs, funding