Edward Turos was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1960 and moved from Old Bridge, New Jersey, in 1964 to the countryside of Ellicott City, Maryland, midway between Baltimore and Washington, DC. Growing up there during the 1960s and 1970s was exciting, with so much going on scientifically, politically and socially. It was fortuitous, also, that the public education and career opportunities for young people were outstanding and limited to one’s own aspirations, talents and drive. This environment helped create a passion and commitment to education and scientific discovery. All of his primary and secondary schooling were in the suburbs of Baltimore, where he graduated from Towson State University in 1982 with a bachelor's degree in Chemistry. He then earned his doctorate in Chemistry at Pennsylvania State University under Steven Weinreb, in the development of new synthetic methodologies. Dr. Turos then served as an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Yale University working with Sam Danishefsky. He started his independent career as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at State University of New York at Buffalo in 1989 and moved to the University of South Florida in 1996, where he is now a tenured full professor. He teaches a wide range of fundamental and special topics classes in organic chemistry, and his research laboratory applies organic synthesis to the discovery of new synthetic methods, small molecule antibiotics and nanoparticles for microbial infections.