Peter Brendan Dervan ’72 Ph.D.
San Marino, California
Elected Alumni Fellow in 2008, Peter B. Dervan is the Bren Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. He received his B.S. from Boston College, and after completing his Ph.D. at Yale, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University and began his association with Caltech as an assistant professor in 1973. Professor Dervan served as chair of Caltech’s division of chemistry and chemical engineering from 1994 to 1999. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. Professor Dervan was awarded the 2006 National Medal of Science. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Robert A. Welch Foundation and is the scientific cofounder of the biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences. He also is a member of the board of Beckman Coulter. At Yale he has been honored with the Kirkwood Medal and the Wilbur Cross Medal. He is a former member of the University Council.
