Originally from a dairy farming community in rural Pennsylvania, Mike received his B.A. in chemistry from Colgate University in 1999. Following studies at the University of Cambridge as a Churchill Scholar leading to an M.Phil. degree in chemistry, he moved to Stanford University where he received his Ph.D. in chemistry in 2007 in the group of Prof. Edward Solomon. After brief stops at Dow Chemical as a Senior Research Chemist and Los Alamos National Lab as a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Michael joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Rochester as an Assistant Professor in 2011 with subsequent promotion to Associate Professor in 2017, Professor in 2020 and the Marshall D. Gates, Jr. Professor of Chemistry in 2021. He joined the University of Oxford as Professor of Chemistry in 2022 and Tutorial Fellow in Inorganic Chemistry at Magdalen College. His research interests are in organometallic chemistry, catalysis and physical-inorganic chemistry, with a focus on iron catalysis for sustainable organic synthesis.
