David Berkowitz, Enzyme-Assisted Organic Synthesis; NSF Officer

Dr. Dave Berkowitz was born in 1960 in Urbana, Illinois. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Chicago, where he did undergraduate research. Next, he earned his doctorate from Harvard University. However, his advisor, Steve Benner, moved from Harvard to ETH Zurich, also called the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Dave accompanied him to Zurich where he completed his dissertation work. When Dave returned to the US, he did a postdoc with the legendary Samuel Danishefsky at Yale University. In 1991, he joined UNL as an assistant professor of Chemistry and quickly rose through the ranks. Dave is now in his 35th year in the department.Let me mention three remarkable things about Dave before we start. One is that he served as chair of the department, except that his term was interrupted when he agreed to return to NSF after they had an unexpected opening in a leadership position (Chemistry Division Director) that they needed to fill quickly.. Another is that he co-established the Nebraska Drug Discovery and Development Pipeline (ND3P), a partnership between UNL and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Finally, and most recently, he served as Assistant Director of the NSF Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences.