ANDY Phillips
Ph.D. (Chemistry). University of Canterbury, Christchurch, NZ.
B.Sc. (Bioche
Research interests: chemistry and biology of natural products, methods and strategies for
complex molecule synthesis, new approaches to the discovery of biologically
active small-molecules
Andy Phillips was born, raised and educated in New Zealand. He was an undergraduate at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch and received an undergraduate degree in biochemistry in 1996. It was during the later stages of these studies that he was first introduced to natural products chemistry (by Professors Murray Munro, Andy Pratt, and John Blunt) and organic synthesis (by Professor Jim Coxon) and the seeds sown there were followed by a Ph. D. in synthesis in 1999, during which time much of his thinking was shaped by interactions with Professor Jonathan Morris. It was also during this period that he also met Gillian Nicholas, a graduate student of Professors Blunt and Munro, and they were married in 2000.
After his Ph. D. he moved to the United States to pursue a postdoc with Professor Peter Wipf (1999-2001), and then joined the faculty at the University of Colorado in the Fall of 2001. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2007. During the spring semester of 2009 he was a visiting faculty member in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University and at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
His research has been recognized by a number of awards, including an Eli Lilly Grantee Award (2006), an NSF Career Award (2006) and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2006). Beyond research, he has a strong committment to teaching, and aside from serving on the University of Colorado's Faculty Teaching Excellence Program, his efforts in teaching undergraduates were recognized by the University of Colorado Parents Association Marinus G. Smith Award in 2005.
Outside of science, Andy spends some of his time riding and racing his bike(s) for the Excelsports.com cycling team. This year the team is also sponsored by ' Caring Ambassadors ', a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people with chronic and/or life-threatening diseases.
