I’m a professor and Walter Beach ’56 Chair of Sustainability Studies in the Biology department and the Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Program at Dickinson College. I am a broadly-trained biochemist and chemical ecologist who studies natural products of plants and marine organisms which serve as toxins, pheromones, and potential new medicines. I earned a B.A. in Biology from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and a Ph.D. from the University of Delaware’s College of the Earth, Ocean, and Environment and held two NSF-sponsored postdoctoral fellowships, including one at Penn State University where I studied the phenomenon of “talking trees”. My current interest focuses on the role of botanical histone deactylase inhibitors which reprogram the epigenetic systems of animals, including humans. Our work has been supported by over $2 million in awards from the National Science Foundation, which funded the training of 75 undergraduate researchers. I teach a variety of courses in the fields of biochemistry, physiology, ecology, and marine science – including a problem-based learning course in Chemical Ecology.
At Dickinson I’ve served as chair of the Environmental Studies Department, the interdisciplinary Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Program, the Research and Development Committee, the Nominations Committee, and the Institutional Biosafety Committee. I’ve also served on the Faculty Personnel Committee, the Academic Program Committee, and several Strategic Planning committees and Workload and Compensation committees. Since arriving at Dickinson I’ve been involved in the field of education abroad and founded Dickinson’s Global Scholars Program in Brisbane, Australia. I am also a senior fellow at the Smithsonian Institution and serve as the manager of the Inga. P. Stafford greenhouse facility at Dickinson.