After acquiring a bachelor's degree in biology (Bradley University) I obtained my Ph. D. in chemistry from the University of Hawaii studying the natural products chemistry of deep-water corals. This was followed by two years as a National Institute of Health Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.
Professional Experience:
I spent 27 years as a scientist at Merck & Co. During the first 20 years I worked as natural products chemist involved in drug discovery research and was listed as co-inventor on 22 patents (resume) mainly antifungal agents and constituents of Cyanobacteria including the discovery of cryptophycin.
This portion of my career culminated in the discovery of the pneumocandins, a semisynthetic derivative of which became the drug Cancidas(tm). I shared the American Chemical Society's Heroes of Chemistry Award with two other chemist for that discovery.
More recently a derivative of enfumafungin, MK-3118 an orally active anti fungal agent started Phase 1 clinical trials.
During the last seven years I was in charge of Merck's Compound Collection. This entailed managing approximately 40 full-time and temporary employees. I incorporated SOPs, policies, procedures and protocols to assure our customers of the quality of our product, which was chemical samples for biological screening and the data associated with them. I also served as the Controlled Substance Site Monitor for several years. The main application I used for these functions was Pipeline Pilot.
