Meet the Principal Investigator
Myles Smith, Ph.D.
Myles Smith is a synthetic organic chemist and native of Cape Town, South Africa. He obtained his B.Sc. (Hons) degree at the University of Cape Town, and subsequently undertook graduate studies at Columbia University under the direction of Scott Snyder. His doctoral research focused on the total synthesis of complex alkaloids and the development of novel pyrone-based methods. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 2015, Myles conducted postdoctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute and then at Stanford University with Phil Baran and Noah Burns, respectively, where his research centered upon the synthesis of bioactive natural products and asymmetric catalysis. Myles began his independent career at UT Southwestern in June 2019, where his lab seeks to streamline the synthesis of complex molecules of medicinal value and develop tools in asymmetric catalysis.
Lab Members
Andrew Morrow
Graduate Student
B.S. (2021) UNC Chapel Hill (Advisor: Sidney Wilkerson-Hill)
Ankush Banerjee
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D. (2021) Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (Advisor: Prof. Modhu Sudan Maji)
M.Sc. (2014) Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (Advisor: Prof. Subhas Pan)
B.Sc. (2012) University of Calcutta
Bhawyanth Duvvuru
Graduate Student
B.Sc. Hons. (2022) University of Alberta (Advisor: Dr. Derrick Clive)
Tarak Nayak
Graduate Student
M.Sc. (2022) Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (Advisor: Prof. Modhu Sudan Maji)
B.Sc. (2020) Midnapore College (Vidyasagar University)
Former Lab Members
Zhen Zhang
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D. (2019) Lanzhou University (Advisors: Profs. Hongbin Zhai and Yun Li)
M.S. (2014) Shenyang Research Institute of Chemical Industry (Prof. Bin Li)
B.S. (2011) China University of Mining and Technology
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Tang Group (UW–Madison)
Susanta Sau
Postdoctoral Fellow
Postdoctoral Fellow (2019) Rice University (Advisor: Prof. K. C. Nicolaou)
Ph.D. (2018) Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
(Advisor: Prof. D. H. Dethe)
M.Sc. (2012) Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
(Advisor: Prof. M. K. Ghorai)
B.Sc. (2010) University of Calcutta
Current Position: Medicinal Chemist, Syngene
Fan Xu
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D. (2019) Xiamen University (Advisor: Prof. Hai-chao Xu)
M.S. (2016) Xiamen University (Advisor: Prof. Hai-chao Xu)
B.S. (2013) Nanchang University (Advisor: Prof. Hu Cai)
Current Position: Medicinal Chemist, Hansoh Bio
Harish Suryadevara
Undergraduate Researcher
Green Fellow
B.S. (2024) UT Dallas
Jake Aquilina
Graduate Student
B.S. (2019) CUNY John Jay College
Ph.D. (2023)
Current Position: Medicinal Chemist, AbbVie
Gabriel Negrao de Morais
Undergraduate Researcher
SURF Scholar
B.A. (2025) Oberlin College