Joseph M. Fox is Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Delaware, where he also is the Director of the NIH-funded Center of Biomedical Research Excellence on the Discovery of Chemical Probes and Therapeutic Leads. In 2023, he was named a Francis Alison Professor—UD’s highest faculty honor.

A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Fox received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, where he conducted undergraduate research as a Pfizer fellow with Maitland Jones Jr. He completed graduate studies under Thomas Katz at Columbia University, where he developed a combined interest in materials science and the synthesis of challenging targets. He studied organometallic chemistry with Stephen Buchwald at MIT as an NIH postdoctoral fellow, where he worked on Pd-catalyzed ketone arylation and devised a synthesis of phosphine ligands that is now used commercially.

Selected Professional Experiences and Honors

2023  National Academy of Inventors, Fellow

2023  Francis Alison Award, University of Delaware

2023  Outstanding Scholarship Award, University of Delaware

2023  Bristol-Myers Squibb Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania

2023 Inaugural FMC-Stine Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, Scripps Research Department of Chemistry

2023 Plenary Lecturer, Bioorthogonal & Bioresponsive Symposium, Edinburgh Scotland

2023 Keynote Speaker, Aldrich-UTSW Excellence in Chemistry Symposium

2022 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, American Chemical Society

2022  Cited in Nobel committee’s scientific background Press Release on 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

2022 Plenary Lecturer, 28th International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry Congress

2020 Invited Keynote Lecturer, European Union Horizon 2020 Center, Copenhagen (cancelled)

2017 Delaware Bioscience Association Award for Academic Research

2016 Bristol-Myers Squibb Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, MIT

2014 American Chemical Society Delaware Section Award

2014 Chair, Gordon Research Conference, Organic Reactions and Processs

2014 Section Editor: Current Opinion in Chemical Biology, 2014 issue on “In Vivo Chemistry”

2013 Keynote speaker, New York Academy of Science, Symposium on Bioorthogonal

           Chemistry in Biology and Medicine

2013 University of Delaware Outstanding Graduate Advising and Mentoring Award.

2013 Vice-chair, Gordon Research Conference, Organic Reactions and Processs

2011 Chair, Frontiers in Catalysis—a Symposium honoring Nobel Prize winner Richard F. Heck

2009-   Member, Internal Advisory Committee of Chemistry-Biomaterials COBRE at UD

2009-14 Member, Steering Committee of Chemistry-Biology Interface Program at UD

2007 Thieme Journal Award: from the editorial board of Synthesis and Synlett

2006-11 NSF CAREER Award, Division of Chemistry

2006-8 Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Special Program Grant Awardee

2006 ACS Division of Organic Chemistry Young Investigator

2006 Eli Lilly Lecturer, Northwestern University

2005 Plenary Lecturer, State of Missouri Chemistry symposium, University of Missouri 

New Reactions for Biology

Applications

Synthetic Methods

In 2001, Fox joined the faculty at UD, and he has built a multidisciplinary program that centers on reaction development in chemical biology. Work in his group has included the development and application of tetrazine ligation— a widely-used bioorthogonal reaction that allows for extremely rapid conjugation to biological macromolecules in living systems. Our group remains highly focused on the development of new organic reactions, including catalytic methods for activating chemistry in cells and in vivo. Applications of our work span biology, drug discovery, radiochemistry, imaging, therapy and materials science.

contact info: 302-831-0191, jmfox@udel.edu