Kenneth O’Connor studied chemistry at Hunter College where he obtained a BS degree in 1983.  He obtained a MS and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Rochester in 1989 under the direction of Professor Robert Boeckman studying organotitanium reagents and the intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction.  He then studied Ni(II) salen catalyzed epoxidation and aziridination chemistry with Professor Cynthia Burrows at the State University of New York (SUNY) Stony Brook for two years during a postdoctoral fellowship.  In the summer of 1991, he accepted a position with Rhone-Poulenc as a research scientist at their Charleston, WV chemical plant and focused on optimizing the production of the insecticide Sevin®.  In 1999, he began to teach part-time for Marshall University and during the 2003-2004, 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 academic years, he has taught full-time for the Chemistry Department.  His current research interests are in the areas of General and Synthetic Organic Chemistry.