Rate My Professor Will Lynch

Will Lynch is Professor of Chemistry and Chair of the Department of Biochemistry, Chemistry and Physics at Georgia Southern University. He earned a B.A. in Chemistry and Mathematics from Kalamazoo College in 1986 and a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Wayne State University in 1991. His graduate research examined oxygen atom transfer reactions in osmium complexes under Dr. Richard Lintvedt, building on undergraduate investigations of quadruple-bonded molybdenum complexes with Dr. Thomas Smith. Following his doctorate, Lynch conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Georgia with Dr. Donald Kurtz on molecular oxygen activation using copper complexes. He joined Armstrong State College in 1993, advancing to Professor in 2005 and Department Head from 2006 to 2018. After the merger with Georgia Southern University, he assumed his current positions as Professor and Department Chair in 2018.

Lynch's research focuses on coordination polymers, cocrystals, materials science, X-ray crystallography, bioinorganic modeling, and coordination chemistry. Key publications include "Syntheses and crystal structures of three triphenylsulfonium salts of manganese(II), iron(III) and cobalt(II)" in Acta Crystallographica Section E (2025), "Crystal structures of zinc(II) coordination complexes with isoquinoline N-oxide" in Acta Crystallographica Section E (2025), and "Comparison of N···I and N···O halogen bonds in organoiodine cocrystals of heterocyclic aromatic diazine mono-N-oxides" in Crystal Growth & Design (2024). Earlier works feature "Structural and Functional Models for the Dicopper Site in Hemocyanin" in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (1994) and "Osmium(VI)-dioxo complexes derived from β-diketone Schiff bases" in Inorganic Chemistry (1991). A long-time American Chemical Society member since 1987, Lynch served as Director-at-Large on the ACS Board of Directors from 2023 to 2025 and was re-elected for a second three-year term in 2025. He chaired the ACS Committee on Strategic Planning for the 2025–2029 plan and held extensive leadership roles, including Chair of the Coastal Georgia Section and Southeast Regional Meeting. Awards include the Coastal Georgia Section ACS Service Award (1999) and Armstrong Atlantic State University Alumni Award for Service to the Discipline (2004).