I was born and reared in Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, located in the western middle field of the anthracite coal mining region of east central Pennsylvania. Research in my lab derives from the background in organic chemistry that I obtained in the labs of Profs. Harold Heine, Gilbert Stork and George Büchi. I have completed total synthesis of several marine natural products as well as vitamin D derivatives. I also have a strong interest in the characterization of reactive intermediates such as enolate anions and amide bases. The techniques used to characterize these latter intermediates include x-ray diffraction analysis and diffusion NMR (DOSY).