The Oesper Award Program and Symposium

The 2026 Oesper Award will honor Glaxo Distinguished University Chair, Jonathan Lindsey, North Carolina State University

Bio

The 2026 Oesper Award will honor Jonathan Lindsey from North Carolina State University. Professor Lindsey grew up in Rockport, Indiana. He received his B.S. Degree (with Distinction and Honors) in Chemistry from Indiana University at Bloomington in 1978, where he did undergraduate research with Dr. Frank R. N. Gurd and Dr. Lawrence K. Montgomery. He earned his Ph.D. degree from The Rockefeller University in 1983 with mentorship by Dr. David C. Mauzerall. He and Mauzerall created one of the first light-driven electron-transfer systems to mimic the reaction center of photosynthetic bacteria – one of Nature’s greatest molecular machines. After continuing for one-year as a postdoctoral fellow at Rockefeller, he spent 12 years on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, became a full Professor in 1995, and moved in 1996 to North Carolina State University as Glaxo Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry. His scientific interests concern the synthesis of tetrapyrrole macrocycles and their photochemical properties in fields ranging from energy sciences to medicine. His research group has included students from all over the world; together, they have published >450 peer-reviewed papers chiefly in the field of organic chemistry. His overriding interest centers in tetrapyrrole science, namely how porphyrins, chlorophylls, and bacteriochlorophylls have originated, can be created, function in the natural world, and can be exploited for diverse applications.