Phil Baran, PhD

Professor and Dr. Richard A. Lerner Endowed Chair
Department of Chemistry
Scripps Research

Phil Baran is a professor and Dr. Richard A. Lerner Endowed Chair in the Department of Chemistry at Scripps Research. He joined the institute in 2003, following his role as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University under Nobel laureate Professor E.J. Corey.

An alumnus of the Scripps Research graduate school, Baran has a special connection to this doctoral program and, now as a faculty member, has been heavily involved in mentoring the next generation of scientists. He was the 151st student to enroll in the program back in 1997. Fast forward to today, Baran has taught more than 25 courses as a course director and served as a presenter more than 120 times in other courses.

Baran’s dedication to Scripps Research—more specifically, the graduate program—has served as an inspiration to others. Since 2004, he has been a thesis advisor to 66 graduate students, and two former students (Ryan Shenvi, PhD, and Hans Renata, PhD) later joined the Scripps Research faculty. He has also served as a committee member for 134 other graduate students.

Throughout his career, Baran has authored hundreds of publications (cited over 40,000 times), earned several patents, co-founded several successful biotech companies, and received numerous professional awards, including the ACS Elias J. Corey Award, 2013 MacArthur Fellowship and Blavatnik National Laureate in Chemistry Award. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from New York University.

Phil Dawson, PhD

Professor
Department of Chemistry
Scripps Research

Phil Dawson is the chair of the Graduate School Advisory Committee (GAC) at Scripps Research and a professor in the Department of Chemistry. As GAC chair, he provides guidance and support for the Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences, a program consistently ranked among the top 10 in the nation. Previously, Dawson served as dean of the Skaggs Graduate School.

Dawson’s research focuses on the development of synthetic tools for the chemical synthesis of proteins and bioconjugation. For his accomplishments in this field, he has received the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the Vincent du Vigneaud Award from the American Peptide Society, the Max Bergmann Gold Medal for outstanding contributions in peptide chemistry and the Leonidas Zervas Award from the European Peptide Society.

He has served on the advisory boards of numerous journals, companies and international conferences. Additional contributions have been made as a member of the board of directors for the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology and as the president of the American Peptide Society. His studies have been reported in more than 150 peer-reviewed publications.

Dawson earned his doctorate at the institute’s graduate program in 1996, following his bachelor's degree in chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis. He pursued postdoctoral work at the California Institute of Technology before returning to Scripps Research as an assistant professor. In 2011, he served on the Dean’s Advisory Committee and in 2012, became associate dean of Graduate Studies. In 2017, Dawson became a full professor and was appointed as dean of the graduate school. In 2024, he was named chair of the Graduate School Advisory Committee.

Chris Bi, PhD

Executive Director, Integrative Sciences
Bristol Myers Squibb

Chris Bi is an experienced drug discovery and early development leader with 20+ years of experience and a proven track record of innovative portfolio delivery. He is currently Executive Director of Integrative Sciences at Bristol Myers Squibb. Chris provides strategic input and scientific leadership on external R&D opportunities, builds partnerships, and drives portfolio delivery applying novel technologies and scientific insights, through an ecosystem of biotech and academic partners. Over the past 5 years, he has been integral to creating over 15 collaborations and equity investments for BMS. He has served as a Board Director/Observer on Structural Genomics Consortium, Nitrase Therapeutics, SyntheX Labs, and Elsie Biotechnologies, and on the Advisory Board of Alexandria Seed Capital. Earlier in his career, Chris was a Director at Pfizer, providing oversight on strategic partnerships of Medicine Design to advance Pfizer’s small molecule portfolio through the optimal integration of capabilities and capacities of biotech, CRO, and CDMO partners. Chris obtained his PhD in chemistry from Stanford University and an executive MBA degree from UC San Diego.

Martin Eastgate, PhD

Vice President, Head, CMC Portfolio Strategy and Integration
Bristol Myers Squibb, Product Development

Martin Eastgate obtained his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Surrey, UK (1999), graduating with first class honors. He received his doctoral degree in organic chemistry (2002) from the University of Cambridge, UK, followed by postdoctoral research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In 2005 Martin joined Bristol Myers Squibb as a process chemist, rising through the organization to lead the process chemistry team (2014-2025). He is currently Head of CMC Portfolio Strategy and Integration, an organization of matrix team leaders responsible for all CMC activities from pre-IND-tox, through to NDA/BLA submission, across the small molecule and biologics portfolios.

In his prior roles Martin led multiple teams through complex scientific and business projects, enhancing organizational performance and value creation, designing commercial approaches to important drug candidates (such as the HIV attachment inhibitor Fostemsavir) and supporting GMP manufacturing activities. In 2014 Martin took on accountability for transitioning BMS small molecule assets from Research into FIH enabling drug supply, supporting over 130 programs through a blended internal-external strategy. Martin led this team to deliver industry leading performance, accelerating the pathway from discovery to clinic while controlling budget and risk tolerance. From 2017 to 2025 Martin was accountable for early-phase drug substance development strategy – including commercial route selection and external development activities – driving functional area business processes, value creation and commercial readiness for the small molecule, bioconjugate and new modality portfolios.

After nearly a decade leading internal and external science, in 2022 Martin became the co-lead of the BMS-Biocon Research Center (BBRC), a research institute on the campus of Syngene Inc. in Bangalore India, where Martin is accountable for the Product Development facing team of >200 scientists supporting the BMS portfolio with annual budget accountability of over $50M USD.

In addition to his internal activities, Martin is an externally recognized scientist. Martin is on the joint research committee (JRC) of the BMS-Scripps collaboration, is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) for the ACS journal Organic Process Research and Development (OPRD), the Board of Directors for Organic Reactions, and was on the Scientific Advisory Boards (SAB) of Asymchem Life Sciences Inc. and Elsie Biosciences. Martin has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) since 2018.

Martin has co-authored over 100 peer reviewed publications, is a co-inventor on multiple applications and granted patents and has been invited to give more than 100 lectures at conferences and universities world-wide. Martin has been the recipient of several awards including the GlaxoSmithKline Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Organic Chemistry, was selected as a 2011 ACS Young Investigator, was a 2017 McElvain lecturer at the University of Wisconsin, was the inaugural recipient of the Industrial Chemistry Award from the International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry (2017), received the Organic Industrial Chemistry Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry (2019), the Ondetti & Cushman Award (a scientific honor presented by Bristol Myers Squibb, 2019), is a winner of the EPA Green Chemistry Challenge award (2021), the Industrial Chemistry Award by the Philadelphia Organic Chemists Club (POCC, 2021), and was part of teams that received the Robert Robinson Horizon Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry (2022), the Heroes of Chemistry Award (Fostemsavir, 2023) and an Edison Patent Award (2023).

Monica Fitzgerald, PhD

Executive Director, Development Chemistry
Bristol Myers Squibb

Monica Fitzgerald joined the Chemical Development organization at Bristol Myers Squibb in 2006, following the completion of her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Rutgers University and a PhD in chemistry from Boston College. In the early stages of her career, Monica made significant contributions to numerous development programs through the successful design, development, and scale-up of synthetic routes and processes for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). She subsequently held roles of increasing responsibility across external partner management, business operations, and project and portfolio management, supporting BMS’s diverse therapeutic modalities, including cell therapy. In 2022, Monica rejoined the Process Chemistry team and currently serves as Executive Director of Development Chemistry. In this role, she leads cross-functional collaborations to develop safe, economical, and sustainable processes that ensure the reliable supply of high-quality active ingredients for the medicines BMS delivers to patients. Monica also oversees academic collaborations and recently transitioned to the Joint Research Committee (JRC) of the BMS-Scripps partnership.

Keary Engle, PhD (moderator)

Dean of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies
Professor
Department of Chemistry
Scripps Research

Keary Engle is the Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at Scripps Research and a professor in the Department of Chemistry. As dean, he oversees the Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences, a program consistently ranked among the top 10 in the nation.

Engle’s research focuses on accelerating the synthesis of organic molecules that are used in medicines, biological probes, agrochemicals, and materials building blocks. Many of these molecules are difficult to prepare, requiring several steps to create, costing a substantial amount of time and effort, and generating large quantities of waste. Engle’s lab is developing catalysts that enable efficient, effective and sustainable methods of chemical synthesis to better produce small molecules. Catalysts developed in the Engle lab have been rapidly adopted in academic and industrial labs around the world.

Prior to joining Scripps Research as an assistant professor in 2015, Engle was an NIH Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the California Institute of Technology. He is also a recipient of the 2021 NSF CAREER Award, 2021 Amgen Young Investigator Award, 2020 Eli Lilly Organic Chemistry Award, and 2018 Bristol Myers Squibb Unrestricted Grant, among many other honors. Since joining the institute, Engle has served on more than 90 graduate student advisory committees.

Engle earned his doctorate (PhD) at Scripps Research, doctor of philosophy (DPhil) in biochemistry at the University of Oxford, and his bachelor’s degree in chemistry, economics, mathematics and statistics at University of Michigan.