Dr Herman Sintim received his BS in medicinal chemistry from University College London (first class) and a PhD in organic chemistry from University of Oxford. He held postdoctoral positions at Oxford and Stanford Universities before joining UMD in 2006. His research interests include total syntheses of complex bioactive molecules and the development of new reaction methodologies, discovery of new antibiotics with novel modes of action such as disrupting bacterial quorum sensing (cell-to-cell communication) and biofilm formation and the use of synthetic oligonucleotides to study RNA and DNA processing.