I am the Director of the Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford (WEPO) and Tutor for Visiting Students at Exeter College. Established in 1985, WEPO brings 26 exceptional third-year students from Williams College in Massachusetts to Oxford for a full academic year as integrated members of Exeter. While Williams emphasizes broad liberal arts study, WEPO students adapt to Oxford’s tutorial system by focusing deeply on two or three disciplines—a distinctive hybrid of broad foundation and concentrated study.
By training, I am a synthetic organic chemist. I earned my B.A. at Williams College, my Ph.D. at Stanford University, and completed an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard University. Since 1998, I have been a member of the Williams faculty, where I serve as the Hodge Markgraf ’52 Professor of Chemistry. My scholarship involves developing efficient new methods in organic synthesis with biologically significant applications—work funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and American Chemical Society.
A native of White River Junction, Vermont, and a long-time New Englander, I have a deep appreciation for the outdoors. In recent years I’ve become an avid hillwalker, completing six long-distance inn-to-inn treks across the UK, including the Coast-to-Coast Path and the West Highland Way. I am also a homebrewer and a keen fan of British pub culture. Since arriving in Oxford, I’ve combined these interests into a local pub-walking challenge, which I document on my blog, The Rambling Fellow.