About Professor Dervan
Peter B. Dervan is the Bren Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. Dervan pioneered a field of chemistry with studies directed toward understanding the chemical principles for the sequence specific recognition of DNA. Cell permeable small molecules that modulate protein-DNA interfaces may be useful for the external control of aberrant gene expression relevant in human disease.
Dervan received his B.S. degree from Boston College, and Ph.D. at Yale. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University and began his association with Caltech as an assistant professor in 1973. Professor Dervan served as chair of Caltech’s division of chemistry and chemical engineering from 1994 to 1999. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.
Professor Dervan received the 2006 National Medal of Science from President Bush. Other awards include the Harrison Howe Award (1988), Arthur C. Cope Award (1993), Willard Gibbs Medal (1993), Nichols Medal (1994), Maison de la Chimie Foundation Prize (1996), Remsen Award (1998), Kirkwood Medal (1998), Alfred Bader Award (1999), Max Tishler Prize (1999), Linus Pauling Medal (1999), Richard C. Tolman Medal (1999), Tetrahedron Prize (2000), Harvey Prize (Israel) (2002), Ronald Breslow Award (2005), Wilbur Cross Medal (2005) and the Frank H. Westheimer Medal (2009). He has served on several Scientific Advisory Boards for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. He is Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Robert A. Welch Foundation.