Phil DeShong is a Professor and former Chair of the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of Maryland, College Park. He obtained an undergraduate education at the University of Texas, Austin and was a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following postdoctoral studies in bio-organic chemistry and biochemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Techology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he joined the Pennsylvania State University as a faculty member, then moved to the University of Maryland in 1987. In addition, he has held adjunct faculty positions at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Wurzburg, the University of Zurich, Changwon University (Korea) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
Dr. DeShong's research interests include the development of synthetic methodology and total synthesis of biologically active substances, the synthesis of oligosaccharides and glycoproteins, and development of new sensors based on nanotechnology and cell biology. In this last area, he is a member of a highly a collaborative network that includes chemists, cell biologists and microbiologists, and physicists. He has published >75 papers in refereed journals and numerous chapters in books and monographs.
Over the past decade, Dr. DeShong has served many times on a variety of NIH Study Sections, NSF panels, was a member of the Advisory Board for the Journal of Organic Chemistry, and is currently the Chemistry Judge for the Intel Science Talent Search.