Dr. Amos B. Smith III received his undergraduate degree from Bucknell University, where he completed the first combined four-year bachelor’s and master’s of science degree in chemistry. After one year at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, he moved to Rockefeller University, where he earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and then completed a year as a Research Associate at Rockefeller University. In 1973, he joined the University of Pennsylvania as an assistant professor of chemistry. He is currently the Rhodes-Thompson Professor of Chemistry at Penn. His other duties at this time are as a member of the Monell Chemical Senses Center and as Associate Director of the Penn Center for Molecular Discovery (PCMD). His research encompasses three areas: natural product synthesis, bioorganic chemistry, and materials science. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Organic Reactions, Inc., and Organic Synthesis, Inc. He has served on the Scientific Advisory Board of many companies and is currently on the board of Adesis, Inc., New Castle, DE, and is a member of the ESPCI International Council, Paris, France. Dr. Smith is the recipient of dozens of awards, most recently the 2015 Perkin Prize for Organic Chemistry by the Royal Society for Chemistry and the Paul G. Gassman Distinguished Service Award sponsored by the Division of Organic Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (ACS).