James K Bashkin's Biography

James K Bashkin, Professor, University of Missouri–St. Louis

Professor Bashkin grew up in Tucson, Arizona and graduated from the University of California- Irvine in 1977 with a B.A. in Chemistry. He then completed a D. Phil. In organometallic chemistry under the direction of Malcolm L.H. Green at Oxford in the U.K. before undertaking postdoctoral studies, including an NIH postdoctoral fellowship, with R. H. Holm at Harvard University. After six years in Monsanto Corporate Research, Dr. Bashkin joined the chemistry faculty at Washington University in St. Louis, in 1991. In 1999, he returned to Monsanto to head a Gene Chemistry group. The company rapidly became Pharmacia, and later Pfizer, which Dr. Bashkin left in 2003. At that time, he formed NanoVir, LLC with biologist Chris Fisher and started a chemistry lab at the University of Missouri- St. Louis as Research Associate Professor. He was appointed Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2011. Dr. Bashkin shared the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award in 1998, the Thomas and Hochwalt Award (Monsanto) in 1994, and the Roland Tibbetts Award (to his company) in 2006. He co-chaired the Green Chemistry Gordon Research Conference in 2002, served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Chemical Reviews from 1991-2014 and continues to serve on NIH study sections.