Organic Chemistry
CCB's long and illustrious history of accomplishment in the area of carbon-containing compounds is exemplified by pioneering syntheses of the complex molecules palytoxin and vitamin B12.
With emphasis on development of new reaction methodology and synthesis of families of molecules ranging from small probes to large compounds with antimicrobial and antibiotic activity, and creation of supramolecular assemblies of relevance to energy conversion, Harvard’s organic chemistry effort continues to be multifaceted and fruitful.
Organic Chemistry Faculty
Dan Kahne
kahne@chemistry.harvard.eduDepartment Chair
Higgins Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Laboratory Manager/Administrator: Michael Quinn Coordinator: Melissa LeGrand The Kahne Lab is interested in the problem of antibiotic resistance. To develop new approaches to treat resistant bacterial infections, we focus on the protein machines that...
Andrew Myers
myers@chemistry.harvard.eduAmory Houghton Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Laboratory Manager/Administrator: Michael Quinn Andrew G. Myers graduated from MIT in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He was introduced to chemical research as an undergraduate in the laboratory of Professor William R. Roush, and went on to study...
Brian Liau
liau@chemistry.harvard.eduMorris Kahn Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Laboratory Manager/Administrator: Ines Santos The Liau Lab is developing chemical approaches to illuminate molecular mechanisms of gene regulation, while exploring the promise of chromatin regulators as therapeutic targets. We employ chemistry to create...
Christina Woo
cwoo@chemistry.harvard.eduProfessor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Coordinator: Keneisha Murphy The Woo lab draws from the fields of chemical biology, organic synthesis, and mass spectrometry to understand small molecule activity in the proteome. We seek to develop and apply chemical proteomic methods to study the...
Daniel G. Nocera
dnocera@fas.harvard.eduPatterson Rockwood Professor of Energy
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Daniel G. Nocera is the Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy at Harvard University. A descriptive bio of Professor Nocera can be found here.
David R. Liu
liu@chemistry.harvard.eduThomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Laboratory Manager/Administrator: Emily Botelho David R. Liu is the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences at Harvard University, Richard Merkin Professor and director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare...
E. J. Corey
corey@chemistry.harvard.eduSheldon Emory Professor Emeritus
(Not Accepting Graduate Students)
E. J. Corey has been a Professor at Harvard since 1959. He was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1945-1950) and served as a faculty member at the University of Illinois from 1951 to 1959. He is the 1990 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and...
Emily Balskus
balskus@chemistry.harvard.eduThomas Dudley Cabot Professor of Chemistry
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Laboratory Manager/Administrator: Rhonda Pautler The central goal of research in the Balskus group is to discover, understand, and manipulate microbial metabolism. The vast majority of life on Earth is microbial, and the survival of these organisms in...
Eric Jacobsen
jacobsen@chemistry.harvard.eduSheldon Emery Professor of Chemistry
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Laboratory Administrator: Nicole Minotti Eric Jacobsen joined Harvard University as full professor in 1993, was named the Sheldon Emory Professor of Organic Chemistry in 2001, and served as Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology from...
Matthew Shair
shair@chemistry.harvard.eduProfessor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Laboratory Manager/Administrator: Ashley Richardson The Shair lab uses small molecules and cell biology as part of an integrated approach to study the mechanistic basis of human diseases, identify new druggable targets, and develop therapeutics.
Richard Y. Liu
richardliu@chemistry.harvard.eduAssistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
(Accepting Graduate Students)
Laboratory Manager: Ashley Richardson Richard Liu's research is directed at the development of organic and organometallic catalysts and synthetic methods to access complex molecules for discovery. For example, the group is working on design of...
Stuart L. Schreiber
stuart_schreiber@harvard.eduMorris Loeb Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Emeritus
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
(Not accepting Graduate Students)
Laboratory Manager/Administrator: Allison Roach Stuart Schreiber's lab studies the science of therapeutics. Researchers in his group rely on human biology to identify therapeutic targets that have been validated prior to testing in humans, and chemistry...
Recent News
Sunny Shi honored with RSC Certificate of Undergraduate Excellence
The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology (CCB) celebrated undergraduate researcher Sunny Shi on June 8, 2026, during the department's Summer Undergraduate Research Community Opening Social, where she was presented with the Royal Society of...
Profile: First rule of a disease fighter: Be curious
It was DNA replication that first captured Isaac Witte’s scientific imagination as a high school student in Overland Park, Kansas. “It’s this orchestration of so many different proteins and molecules that come together to do this core element of life,” he...
Eric Jacobsen Wins 2026 Cotton Medal
Professor Eric Jacobsen, Sheldon Emery Professor of Chemistry, has been selected as the 2026 recipient of the F.A. Cotton Medal for Excellence in Chemical Research named for one of the most honored faculty members in Texas A&M University history. The...
