Robert Batey

Prof. Rob Batey was born in England, and graduated from Oxford University with a B.A. degree in 1988. His research expertise lies in the areas of organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry and chemical biology. Rob received his Ph.D. from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in 1992 under the guidance of Prof. Willie B. Motherwell, on the synthetic applications of free-radical rearrangements. As a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania with Prof. Jeffrey D. Winkler, he worked on approaches toward the synthesis of taxol. Following a position at the Upjohn Company in Michigan, he joined the faculty at the University of Toronto in 1994. Since joining the Faculty of the University of Toronto in 1994 he has been the recipient of several awards including the Canadian Society of Chemistry - Bader Award (2014), Faculty of Arts and Science Outstanding Teaching Award (2012-13), Merck-Frosst Centre for Therapeutic Research Award (2006), Merck Academic Development Program Award (2005), Premier's Research Excellence Award (2000), the Bio-Méga/Boehringer Ingelheim Young Investigator Award for Organic Chemistry (1998) and the Canadian Society of Chemistry / Astra Pharma Award (1997).

Prof. Batey has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications in the areas of organic synthesis, total synthesis, medicinal chemistry, heterocyclic synthesis, organoboron and pericyclic reactions, peptides and depsipeptides, alkaloids, protein-protein interactions, antibiotics and oncology. Since July 2013 he has served as the Chemistry Department Chair.