Prof. Spencer Knapp

Dr. Spencer Knapp is a Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey. His research focuses on the broad application of organic synthesis to the solution of problems in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology. As a Fellow in the Ford Foundation Six-Year BA-PhD Program, he obtained his BA (1972) at Cornell University and his PhD (1975) with Jerrold Meinwald, also at Cornell. After completing an NIH postdoctoral stint with E. J. Corey at Harvard University, he moved to Rutgers in 1977. His research interests there have spanned medicinal chemistry (IBD, tuberculosis, and malaria), structural bio-inorganic chemistry (metalloproteins and biological electron transfer), natural product total synthesis, new synthetic methods, and enzyme mechanisms and inhibition. He has served as Chair of the Princeton section of the American Chemical Society and was recently (2022) named a Fellow of the American Chemical Society.