Philip E. Dawson, PhD
Philip Dawson is the chair of the Graduate School Advisory Committee (GAC) at Scripps Research and a professor in the Department of Chemistry. As GAC chair, he provides guidance and support for the Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences, a program consistently ranked among the top 10 in the nation. Previously, Dawson served as dean of the Skaggs Graduate School.
Dawson’s research focuses on the development of synthetic tools for the chemical synthesis of proteins and bioconjugation. For his accomplishments in this field, he has received the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the Vincent du Vigneaud Award from the American Peptide Society, the Max Bergmann Gold Medal for outstanding contributions in peptide chemistry and the Leonidas Zervas Award from the European Peptide Society.
He has served on the advisory boards of numerous journals, companies and international conferences. Additional contributions have been made as a member of the board of directors for the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology and as the president of the American Peptide Society. His studies have been reported in more than 150 peer-reviewed publications.
Dawson earned his doctorate at the institute’s graduate program in 1996, following his bachelor's degree in chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis. He pursued postdoctoral work at the California Institute of Technology before returning to Scripps Research as an assistant professor. In 2011, he served on the Dean’s Advisory Committee and in 2012, became associate dean of Graduate Studies. In 2017, Dawson became a full professor and was appointed as dean of the graduate school. In 2024, he was named chair of the Graduate School Advisory Committee.
