David Kessel is a Professor at Wayne State University. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1952, a Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Michigan in 1954, and completed his Ph.D. studies in Biochemistry at the University of Michigan in 1959. He completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School from 1960 to 1964. He has 469 publications with 32269 citations and an h-index of 66 (Scopus, 14 December 2023). He received the Gold Medal Award at the 18th International Photodynamic Association World Congress, and the Outstanding Contributions Medal from the European Society for Photobiology at its 20th Congress. He also received the Distinguished Faculty Award in 1989–1990, the WSU Academy of Scholars membership in 1990 and served as its president from 2009–2010, the Dean’s Research Excellence Award in 1998 and 2014, the Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award in 2000, the Thomas Dougherty Award for Excellence from the International Conference on Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines in 2008, the Lifetime Achievement Awards from the American Society of Photobiology in 2012, the International Photodynamic Association in 2017, and the Lawrence M. Weiner Award from the WSU School of Medicine in 2012.