Born in Havana, Cuba in 1963, Dr. Erick Carreira is a worldwide leader in the asymmetric synthesis of biologically active and stereochemically complex natural products. He received a B.S. in 1984 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the supervision of Prof. Denmark. Dr. Carreira would then obtain his Ph.D. in 1990 from Harvard University in Prof. David Evans’ group. Postdoctoral work was carried on with Prof. Dervan at CalTech, where he would eventually join the faculty and rise to the ranks of full professor by 1997. Prof. Carreira has been full professor of organic chemistry at ETH Zürich since 1998, where he has built a strong group that focuses on the synthesis of complex natural products. The group utilizes its background in coordination, organometallic chemistry and molecular recognition to develop catalytic and stoichiometric reagents which are subsequently used in multi-step syntheses of molecules such as Spirotyprostatin B, Erythronolide A and many others. Owing to the quality of the research Prof. Carreira has won a multitude of awards which include the American Chemical Society Award in Pure Chemistry, Nobel Laureate Signature Award, National Science Foundation CAREER Award, etc.

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland (1942), Dr. Fraser Stoddart would obtain his B.Sc. in 1964 and his Ph.D. in 1966 under the supervision of Drs. Sir Edmund Hirst and Anderson from Edinburgh University. He would then carry out his postdoctoral work with Drs. Jones and Ollis. From 1970 to 1990, Prof. Stoddart was faculty member with the University of Sheffield which was followed by an appointment at University at Birmingham. Prof. Stoddart would then moved to UCLA in 1997 as the Saul Winstein Chair of Organic Chemistry and in 2003 would become with Fred Kavli Chair in NanoSystems Sciences. As of 2008, Dr. Stoddart has joined the faculty of Northwestern University as the Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry. Dr. Stoddart has created a new field of organic chemistry, in which a mechanical bond is a preeminent feature of molecular compounds. He is the pioneer of using molecular recognition and self-assembly processes in their use as molecular switches and motor-molecules in fabrication of nanoelectronic devices. Prof. Stoddart is one the most influential chemists, as witnessed via his citation statistics (>800 publications, 3rd most citied chemist with 46 citations per paper) and by the >300 Ph.D. and postdoctoral fellows that have passed through the labs.

Professor Snyder grew up in the suburbs of Buffalo, NY, where his interests in science, particularly chemistry, were forged by a variety of experiences including research in a biochemistry lab at the State University of New York at Buffalo and an opportunity to represent the United States in the International Chemistry Olympiad. He then pursued undergraduate studies in chemistry at Williams College in Williamstown, MA. In 1999, he began his graduate studies with Prof. K. C. Nicolaou at The Scripps Research Institute, studying the chemistry and biology of the marine-derived antitumor agent diazonamide A, as well as co-authoring Classics in Total Synthesis II, which currently ranks as John Wiley and Sons second-bestselling title in chemistry. Dr. Snyder trained as an NIH postdoctoral fellow with Prof. E. J. Corey (Harvard) where he completed the enantioselective total synthesis of four members of the dolabellane family of natural products. Since 2006, Scott has been at Columbia University as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry where his group seeks to explore chemical space in the broadly defined area of natural product total synthesis. His group seeks to accomplish efficient construction through the design and development of new strategies, biomimetic tactics, cascade sequences, and synthetic methods that will hopefully provide general solutions applicable to complex families of natural products. Recent awards and honors include a Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award, an Eli Lilly New Faculty Award, an Amgen New Faculty Award, an NSF CAREER Award, a Cottrell Scholar Award from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship, and a Columbia University Presidential Teaching Award.