Graeme Wyllie was born in Balloch, Scotland, and attended the Vale of Leven Academy before obtaining his undergraduate degree in chemistry at the University of St. Andrews. In 1994, he moved to the U.S. and completed his Ph.D. in Bioinorganic Chemistry at the University of Notre Dame before moving to Fargo to carry out 3 years of postdoctoral research at North Dakota State University. He joined Concordia College in the fall of 2006 and since then has focused on teaching and redesign of the general chemistry laboratory program making it more sustainable, impactful to students and increasing the connection of materials and topics to the real world, a program which culminates in a semester-long course-based research experience (CURE) looking at properties and the chemistry of chitosan alginate bioplastics each spring.
In addition to his day job teaching chemistry to undergraduate students, Dr. Wyllie also heads up the Concordia Science Academy, a science outreach organization dedicated to providing students from elementary school on up with a positive science experience, one that is both educational and entertaining. In his instantly recognizable tie-dye lab coat and strong Scottish accent, Dr. Wyllie has been actively involved in science activities throughout the Fargo-Moorhead area and beyond seeing several thousand kids every year. He has visited many of the schools in the region for science activities, worked with numerous community organizations, and even appeared on stage at the Minnesota State Fair in 2018 and 2019. He is a strong believer in making science fun and designing experiments and activities with a strong real-world connection. Dr. Wyllie has also been strongly involved in the local section of the American Chemical Society currently serving as Councilor to the local section and he chaired the Great Lakes Regional ACS meeting in 2017. From 2019-2021, he also served as president of the Sigma Zeta Science and Mathematics National Honors Society.Publications
Articles & Chapters
Alexandra M. Ward and Graeme R. A. Wyllie Bioplastics in the General Chemistry Laboratory: Building a Semester-Long Research Experience. Journal of Chemical Education, 2019, 96 (4), pp 668-676.
Graeme R. A. Wyllie, Embracing Limits in Creating a Responsible Scientist/Citizen - Reformation and Resilience: Lutheran Higher Education for Planetary Citizenship, Ernest Simmons and Erin Hemme Froslie (editors), Lutheran University Press, 2017. pp. 299-303.
Graeme R. A. Wyllie Spectroscopic Determination of Triclosan Concentration in a Series of Antibacterial Soaps: A First-Year Undergraduate Laboratory Experiment. Journal of Chemical Education, 2015, 92 (1), pp 153–156.
Graeme R. A. Wyllie; Nathan J Silvernail; Oliver G Allen; Charles E Schulz; W. Robert Scheidt Iron Nitrosyl "Natural" Porphyrinates: Does the Porphyrin Matter?" Inorganic Chemistry 2014 53(7), 3763-3768.
Kenton R. Rodgers; Graeme R. A. Wyllie; Gudrun S. Lukat-Rodgers Insights into Heme Based O2 Sensing from Structure-Function Relationships in the FixL Proteins. The Smallest Biomolecules (Abhik Ghosh Ed.), 2008, Elsevier pp 564-594.
Graeme R. A. Wyllie; Orde Q. Munro; Charles E. Schulz; W. Robert. Scheidt Structural and physical characterization of (nitrato)iron(III) porphyrinates [Fe(por)(NO3)] - Variable coordination of nitrate. Polyhedron 2007, 26 (16), 4664-4672.
Bogdan M. Leu; Marek Z Zgierski; Graeme R. A. Wyllie; W. Robert Scheidt; Wolfgang Sturhahn; E. Ercan Alp; Stephen M. Durbin; J. Timothy Sage Quantitative vibrational dynamics of iron in nitrosyl porphyrins. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2004, 126 (13), 4211-27.
Graeme R. A. Wyllie; W. Robert. Scheidt, Solid-State Structures of Metalloporphyrin NOx Compounds. Chemical Reviews 2002, 102 (4), 1067-1089.