Bio
Name: Dr. Brian Olson
Academic Rank: Assistant Professor, Chemistry
Department: Biology and Chemistry
School: School of Health Professions and Natural Sciences
Office: SH 207
Phone: (973) 328-5339
Email: bolson@ccm.edu
Education: Ph.D., Graduate Center of the City University of New York
M.Phil CUNY Graduate Center
B.A. Hunter College
A.S., Borough of Manhattan Community College
Courses Taught: CHM 105
Special Projects: Dr. Brian Olson, the Forensic Science Course Coordinator at the County College of Morris, loves collaboration and trying new things. He works at the nexus of science, art, and technology, bringing an interdisciplinary spirit of collaboration to bear on innovation, research, and science education. Dr. Olson collaborates with faculty in the Department of Criminal Justice, the Department of Information Technologies, and the Photography Program at CCM to create virtual reality death scenes for use in education.
Please enjoy this online demo of the Bloody Mess Death Scene.His forensic science class and his students at the County College of Morris have been featured on NJTV/PBS.To learn more about Olson’s collaboration on virtual crime scenes, click here
Dr. Olson also created a dollhouse of death to be used for miniature death scene investigations. Outstanding miniatures were hand made by notable artists, including Michael Yurkovich, Jose Gomez, Jim Pounder, Elle Piccolo, and Betty Valentine.
New innovations for the forensic science course include Raoul, the custom-made life-size forensically-accurate bust of a murder victim.
Research
Dr. Olson responded early to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In May 2020, he published research to provide valuable data to laboratories to design drugs that target proteins critical to the persistence of the virus that causes COVID. In the future, new drugs may be needed to combat vaccine-resistant strains of SARS-CoV-2 that may appear in the future. Dr. Olson’s avatar currently collaborates on SARS-CoV-2 research using virtual reality for visualization and drug design.
Dr. Olson also does research on opioid receptors to investigate how simulated water molecules can inform drug design to produce new opioids that will be less likely to cause addiction and overdose.
Notable Patents & Publications
An online repository of solvation thermodynamic and structural maps of SARS-CoV-2 targets
Dr. Brian Olson, Anthony Cruz, Lieyang Chen, Mossa Ghattas, Yeonji Ji, Kunhui Huang, Steven Ayoub, Tyler Luchko, Daniel J. McKay, Tom Kurtzman
ChemRxiv
Published online May 13, 2020
An online repository of solvation thermodynamic and structural maps of SARS-CoV-2 targets
Dr. Brian Olson, Anthony Cruz, Lieyang Chen, Mossa Ghattas, Yeonji Ji, Kunhui Huang, Steven Ayoub, Tyler Luchko, Daniel J. McKay, Tom Kurtzman
Journal of Computer-Aided Molecular Design, Volume 34, Issue 12
Published online Sep 11, 2020
Kurtzman, T. P., Ramsey, S. J., Olson, B. L., Cho, E. S., Jung, S., Minsup, K. (2016) Method of Using a Water-based Pharmacophore; US 20160253451 A1
Select Recent Presentations and Webinars
Olson, B. (2021) Water-based Lead Identification. City University of New York Graduate Center
Olson, B., Kazaba, M. (2021) Scaffolding Virtual Reality Death Scenes. Council of Forensic Science Educators (COFSE). Webinar.
Olson, B., Kazaba, M. (2021) Embracing the Move Online: 360° Virtual Scenes. County College of Morris (CCM), Randolph, NJ
Olson, B., Salinas, D., Burns, C. (2019) C2 Summit for Pedagogical Advancements in STEM. Raritan Valley Community College (RVCC), Branchburg, NJ
Wiley Journal Submissions Reviewer
Journal of Computational Chemistry
Molecular Informatics