Peter B. Dervan (born June 28, 1945) received his early education in Boston, Massachusetts (B. S., Boston College, 1967). He began research in physical organic chemistry working with Jerome A. Berson at Yale University. After earning his Ph.D degree in 1972, he spent a year at Stanford University as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow (1973). From Stanford he went to Pasadena to take up a faculty appointment at the California Institute of Technology where he is now the Bren Professor of Chemistry in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.

Peter Dervan has created a new field of bioorganic chemistry with studies directed toward understanding the chemical principles for the sequence specific recognition of the genetic material, DNA. Dervan has combined the art of synthesis, physical chemistry, and biology to create novel synthetic molecules with affinities and sequence specificities comparable to Nature's proteins for any predetermined DNA sequence. This non- biological approach to DNA recognition underpins the design of cell-permeable molecules for the regulation of gene expression in vivo. The approach could have profound implications for human medicine.

Dervan is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and a Foreign Member of the French Academy of Sciences. His awards include the Harrison Howe Award (1988), Arthur C. Cope Award (1993), Willard Gibbs Medal (1993), Nichols Medal (1994), Maison de la Chimie Foundation Prize (1996), the Remsen Award (1998), Kirkwood Medal (1998), the Alfred Bader Award (1999), the Max Tishler Prize (1999), the Linus Pauling Award (1999), and the Richard C. Tolman Medal (1999).

Professor Dervan's curriculum vitae