Lyle Isaacs

Lyle Isaacs (he/him/his) was born in New York, New York in 1969. He received his B.S. from the University of Chicago in 1991. He obtained his M.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1992. 

Afterwards, he attended the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) where he received his Ph.D. while working under Professor Francois Diederich. That year he was awarded an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship and joined the lab of Professor George M. Whitesides at Harvard University. His studies with Whitesides focused on self-assembly – in organic solution, in water, and at surfaces. 

In 1998 he joined the faculty at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2004, and Professor in 2008. 

The Isaacs groups research concentrates on the design, synthesis, and recognition properties of members of the cucurbit[n]uril family and their use in basic and applied studies of molecular recognition in water.

Dr. Isaacs was a co-organizer of the 8th International Symposium on Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry (ISMSC, 2013) and the NSF sponsored workshop on Cucurbiturils which evolved into the International Conference on Cucurbiturils (ICCB).  Lyle is a member of the International advisory boards of ISMSC and ICCB.  

Dr. Isaacs is a member of the Editorial Board of Supramolecular Chemistry, the Journal of Systems Chemistry, and the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.  He has served as a guest editor of special issues of Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews and Accounts of Chemical Research.

Dr. Isaacs served as the Director of the Chemistry graduate program at the University of Maryland from 2010 to 2013 and currently serves as the Director of the University of Maryland's Chemistry Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Needs (GAANN) program sponsored by the US Department of Education.