B.S. Chemistry with Honors and Special Honors in Chemistry University of Texas at Austin, 1971. Sc. D. in Organic Chemistry (with Professor George H. Büchi) Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1976. Postdoctoral: (a) Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich (with Professor Duilio Arigoni), 1976-1979. (b) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (with Professor Christopher Walsh), 1979.

Synthesis of nanomaterials with novel optical properties; synthesis and characterizaton of functionalized nanomaterials for applications in drug delivery, diagnostics and vaccine development; total synthesis of heterocyclic natural products, development of methodology for organic synthesis, mechanistic organometallic chemistry, synthesis of complex oligosaccharides and glycoprotein derivatives, chemistry of hypervalent silicon derivatives.