Mark D. Levin
Associate Professor of Chemistry
POSITIONS AND EDUCATION
University of Chicago
Assistant Professor (2019 – 2022)
Associate Professor (2022 – Present)
Harvard University
NIH Postdoctoral Fellow (2017-2019)
Advisor: Eric N. Jacobsen
University of California, Berkeley
Ph.D. in Chemistry (2012-2017)
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
ARCS Graduate Research Fellow
Advisor: F. Dean Toste
University of Rochester
B.S. in Chemistry (2008-2012)
Advisor: Alison J. Frontier
NARRATIVE BIOSKETCH
Mark was born and raised in Cleveland, OH as the oldest of three children in a Russian-Jewish immigrant family. In 2012, he earned a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY, conducting undergraduate research with Professor Alison J. Frontier on an oxidative variant of the Nazarov cyclization. Through participation in the DAAD RISE program, Mark also spent the summer of 2010 conducting research with Henning Hopf at TU Braunschweig on the synthesis of strained hydrocarbons. After graduation, he joined the laboratory of Professor F. Dean Toste at the University of California, Berkeley. There, he studied the chemistry of the Au(I)/Au(III) redox couple in several contexts, including supramolecular catalysis and fluorine-18 radiosynthesis. After earning his Ph.D. in 2017, Mark joined the laboratory of Professor Eric N. Jacobsen as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University where his research focused on enantioselective fluorination reactions with chiral organoiodane catalysts. In 2019, Mark joined the University of Chicago as an assistant professor of chemistry and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2022. His research interests include the development of synthetic methodology and study of their mechanisms, with a specific focus on “single-atom skeletal editing”.
AWARDS
Dream Chemistry Award, 2023
Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, 2023
Bristol Myers Squibb Unrestricted Research Grant, 2023
NSF CAREER, 2023
Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award, 2023
Amgen Young Investigator Award, 2022
FMC New Investigator Award, 2022
Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, 2022
Sloan Foundation Fellowship, 2022
Thieme Chemistry Journal Award, 2022
David and Lucille Packard Foundation Fellowship, 2021
Cancer Research Foundation Young Investigator Award, 2020
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Reaxys Ph.D. Prize Finalist, 2017
Andrew Dorsey Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2015
Dr. E.W. and Maude V. Flagg Award, 2012
Carl A. Whiteman Teaching Award, 2012
Phi Beta Kappa, University of Rochester, 2011
Barry M. Goldwater Honorable Mention, 2010
Merck Index Award, 2010
Iota Book Award, 2010
MEDIA
“Endless Possibilities,” The Guardian, 2023
“Almost Magical,” Nature Feature, 2023
“Editing the Structure of Molecules,” Chemistry World, 2023
Bayer Early Excellence in Science Spotlight, 2023
C&EN’s Showstopping Syntheses, 2022
Angewandte Author Profile, 2022
Carbon Deletion, UChicago News, 2022
Sloan Fellowship, UChicago News, 2022
C&EN’s Year in Chemistry, 2021
Packard Fellowship, UChicago News, 2021
Nitrogen Deletion, UChicago News, 2021
The Cyclo Edition Podcast Interview, 2020