Professor Curran's high school chemistry teacher told him not to major in chemistry, but like many headstrong teenagers, he did not heed that advice.  He earned an A.B. in Chemistry, magna cum laude, from the College of the Holy Cross in 1983, and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1988 from M.I.T.  After a year of postdoctoral work in enzymology/molecular biology at Harvard  Medical School, Professor Curran joined the research staff at Alkermes, a startup biotechnology company in Cambridge, MA.  From 1991-2000 Professor Curran was on the faculty at Holy Cross.  He came to Trinity in 2000.  In 2010 he received the Thomas Church Brownell Prize for excellence in teaching.  Professor Curran has been a co-author on 27 peer-reviewed papers; 13 of these papers have 26 different undergraduate student co-authors.  He lives in Wethersfield, CT.  Beyond Trinity Professor Curran is involved with his church, teaching in the religious education program and volunteering with social action projects; he is also a distance runner who, in 20012, has run the Aselton Snow Dash 5K, the Colchester Half Marathon, the Greater Hartford Quarter Marathon, the Cheshire Half Marathon, the Bill Landers Building Bridges 5K and the Keane Foundation 5K.  In his age group he placed 1st in the Keane Foundation 5K, 2nd in the Bill Landers 5K, and 3rd in the Greater Hartford Quarter Marathon.  He will be presenting his research at the International Symposium on Bioorganometallic Chemistry in Toronto in June and the Peptide Engineering Meeting in Atlanta in October.