David Christianson, Roy and Diana Vagelos Professor in Chemistry and Chemical Biology, will assume the role of Department Chair effective July 1, 2018. David succeeds Gary Molander, the Hirschmann-Makineni Professor of Chemistry, who has served as Chair for the past 9 years.
David's research focuses on the structural and chemical biology of metal-requiring enzymes in human disease and biosynthetic enzymes that generate complex terpenoid natural products. He earned AB, AM, and PhD degrees from Harvard University. He began his independent faculty position at Penn in 1988. Highlights of his academic career include a grant from the Searle Scholars Program, an award from the Young Investigator Program at the Office of Naval Research, a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry from the American Chemical Society, a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Repligen Award in Chemistry of Biological Processes from the American Chemical Society.