Jonathan Sessler PhD

Jonathan L. Sessler is a chemist recognized for his work on synthetic analogs of blood pigments. He is particularly well known for the development of the texaphyrins, larger versions of a class of naturally occurring tetrapyrrole macrocycles known as porphyrins that form stable 1:1 complexes with lanthanide cations and which have been the technological basis for two biotechnology startup companies, as well as a class of anion receptors termed calixpyrroles. Sessler was born in Urbana, IL, and grew up in Berkeley, CA. He earned a B.S. in chemistry and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from U.C. Berkeley and Stanford University in 1977 and 1982, respectively.

Following postdoctoral work at the University of Strasbourg and Kyoto University (1982-84), he began his independent career at The University of Texas, where he is currently the Doherty-Welch Regents Chair in Chemistry. Sessler was a cofounder of Pharmacyclics, Inc. and recently helped launch OncoTEX, Inc. Sessler has held visiting professorships at Yonsei University and Shanghai University. In addition to English, he speaks French, Hebrew, Spanish, German, and some Japanese. Sessler is a member of the European Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, and the National Academy of Sciences.