Biography
Laura L. Kiessling PhD holds the Steenbock Chair in Chemistry and is the Laurens
Anderson Professor of Biochemistry. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from MIT and
her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale University where she studied under the direction of
Stuart Schreiber. After carrying out postdoctoral training in Chemical Biology at the
California Institute of Technology with Peter Dervan, she began her independent career
in 1991 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also serves as the Director of the
Keck Center for Chemical Genomics and the Chemistry-Biology Interface Training
Program.
Her interests focus on elucidating and exploiting the mechanisms of cell surface
recognition processes, especially those involving protein–carbohydrate interactions. Her
research addresses questions regarding the assembly of glycans, their biological roles,
and how to co-opt or inhibit glycan interactions.
Kiessling’s other honors and awards include the Alfred Bader Award in Bioorganic
Chemistry, the ACS Claude S. Hudson Award, the Murray Goodman Award, a
Guggenheim Fellowship, and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. She is a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Member of the National Academy of
Sciences. She serves on several editorial boards and is Editor-In-Chief of ACS Chemical
Biology.