Chris was born and raised in Piscataway, New Jersey, and has been a big nerd as long as he can remember. He attended Rutgers University, about a 10 minute drive from his house, because all of the cool kids were doing it. There he majored in Chemistry and Mathematics, and synthesized derivatives of novel antimalarial hit compounds under the guidance of Prof. Spencer Knapp. He joined the Sarlah Group at UIUC with research interests in developing reaction methodology, total synthesis, and computational chemistry. When he's not in lab, Chris enjoys finding new music, playing video games, reading, doing artsy things, and exploring.