Eric V. Anslyn received his BS in chemistry from the California State University Northridge in 1982. He did his doctoral work under the direction of Robert Grubbs at the Caltech, receiving a PhD in 1987. Afterwards, he was an NSF post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University, working with Ronald Breslow. From there he started as an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin in 1989. At UT Austin he rose through the ranks to currently hold the Welch Regents Chair of Chemistry, and is a University Distinguished Teaching Professor, as well as an HHMI Professor. He is a Cope Scholar, and he has won the James, Flack, Norris Award from the ACS for advancements in physical organic chemistry, the Izatt-Christianson Award for Supramolecular Chemistry, and the Czarnik award for molecular sensors. Dr. Anslyn was recently inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Science. His research is in the areas of physical organic and supramolecular chemistry, focused on deciphering reaction mechanisms, novel methods for chemosensing, materials chemistry, and information encoding.