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Officers
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Andrew S. Thompson, Ph.D., President
Dr. Thompson, formerly with Merck Research Labs, Department of Process Research, leads J-Star Research with forward thinking views on how a contract chemistry organization can provide value to it's clients. During his nine year tenure at Merck, Dr. Thompson earned recognition for his contribution to the design, development and demonstration of practical synthetic routes to a number of drug candidates. Dr. Thompson obtained a bachelors degree in chemistry at SUNY Buffalo in 1979. His Ph.D. studies were conducted under Professor Amos B. Smith III at the University of Pennsylvania, in the area of natural product synthesis. He was awarded an NIH Postdoctoral Research Fellowship with Professor Larry Overman at U. C. Irvine. Dr. Thompson's interests outside of chemistry include collecting rare US coins and designing and building customized motorcycles.
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Erik Johnson, Ph. D., Vice President
Dr. Johnson, formerly was with Novartis (Ciba-Geigy) in Process Development and earned recognition for piloting syntheses of a number of cardiovascular drug candidates. During his seven year tenure at Ciba-Geigy, he was also in charge of the kilo-lab. At J-STAR, Erik manages several FTE collaborations while personally solving difficult process research and synthesis problems. Dr. Johnson earned his BA in chemistry at Oberlin College and subsequently spent two years as a bench chemist at Starks Associates. His Ph.D. studies were conducted under Professor Peter Vollhardt at The University of California at Berkeley, working in the area of metal-mediated organic transformations. After his Ph.D. training, Erik was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow with Professor Satoru Masamune at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and worked on catalytic asymmetric hydroborations.
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Thomas L. Shih, Ph. D., Director
Dr. Shih was formerly with Merck Research Laboratories in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry. For much of his fifteen years at Merck, Tom worked on animal health products such as the avermectins and nodulisporic acids. At J-STAR, Tom takes on the more difficult synthetic projects and was a key member of the team that made Epothilone. Dr, Shih received his BA in chemistry from Ithaca College and his Ph.D. from Professor David A. Evans at The California Institute of Technology. At Cal. Tech. Tom worked on the early enantioselective oxazolidinone aldol methodology and co-developed a synthesis of ionomycin. For recreation, Tom enjoys driving on various racetracks in a Porsche 911 or 914.
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James A. Kerschen, Ph.D., Director
Dr. Kerschen began his industrial career with DuPont Agricultural Products. During his 15 year tenure at DuPont, Jim was an internally recognized expert in amino acid, organophosphorus and heterocyclic synthetic chemistry. Dr. Kerschen received his BS in Chemistry from the University of Missouri at Columbia and his Ph.D. with Professor James A. Marshall at Northwestern University where he worked on decalin rearrangement strategies for the construction of the pseudoquianolide sesquiterpene ring system. Jim is an expert in FTE collaboration management. Prior to joining J-STAR, Jim managed 15 FTEs at another CRO and was awarded that pharmaceutical partner's highest productivity award three years in a row. Jim also received a patent from the pharmaceutical client for his intellectual property contributions to an improved chemical process. At J-STAR, Jim continues to manage FTE collaborations and functions in the laboratory, solving the more difficult chemistry problems.
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