Robert T. Williamson

R. Thomas Williamson earned a M.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 1996 and a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from Oregon State University in 2000 under the direction of Dr. William H. Gerwick and Steven J. Gould. Thomas joined Merck & Co. Inc. in 2011 after spending 4 years with Wyeth and 7 years with Roche. At Merck, Thomas served as Director of Structure Elucidation where he oversaw the NMR and higher-end mass spectrometry technologies and their support of projects in Rahway, NJ, Kenilworth, NJ, Summit, NJ, Boston, MA, South San Francisco, and West Point, PA. Thomas’ work at Merck encompassed all phases of drug discovery and development, from lead identification and technology development through involvement in clinical development teams and troubleshooting of manufacturing problems. During his tenure at Merck, Thomas was also a staunch advocate for the application of a wide array of new & emerging technologies and their application to the solution of challenging pharmaceutical problems. In late 2018, Thomas returned to UNCW, where he was named the Yousry Sayed Distinguished Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and began to translate this industry experience to an academic setting.

Education

2017-2018 Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Executive Enterprise Leadership Program,
Corporate Leadership Certification

1996-2000 Oregon State University; Corvallis, OR
Ph.D. Medicinal Chemistry

1994-1996 University of North Carolina; Wilmington, NC
M.S. Organic Chemistry

1990-1994 University of North Carolina; Wilmington, NC
B.A. Chemistry (Focus in Analytical Chemistry)

Specialization in Teaching

Thomas currently teaches:
CHM 505 - Introduction to Drug Discovery and Development
CHM 506 - Pharmaceutical Analysis
CHM 512 - Structure Elucidation

Research Interests

Thomas’ current research holds a special interest in marine natural products drug discovery, the elucidation of the structure and stereochemistry of complex molecules by NMR and the design of NMR pulse sequences to help achieve these goals. During his career, Thomas has published more than 175 peer-reviewed journal articles, 10 book and textbook chapters, and has been invited to present the results of his cutting-edge research at various venues all over the globe.

Group Research Site: https://sites.google.com/view/uncwdisco/home