collaborators
Barry Sharpless (center) and
Hartmuth C. Kolb (right) at the 2022 Nobel awards ceremony After receiving his doctorate, Finn carried out postdoctoral research for two years with
James P. Collman at
Stanford University, before joining the faculty of
University of Virginia in 1988. He moved to the
Scripps Research Institute in 1998 (where his former PhD supervisor Barry Sharpless had previously moved to in 1990) and later to
Georgia Tech in 2013, where he currently holds the James A. Carlos Family Chair for Pediatric Technology, and is chief scientific officer of the Children's healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Technology Center. Finn's research concentrates on the development of methods for the synthesis of biologically-important molecules, such as functional virus-like particles. He coined the term
Click chemistry with
Barry Sharpless and
Hartmuth C. Kolb. He also works on the mechanism and optimisation of copper-catalysed azide-alkyl cycloaddition; on targeted synthesis of
enzyme inhibitors and
antivirals; on bio-conjugation and chemical materials science; on the immunology of carbohydrates; and with new methods of enzyme development. His laboratory works with viruses as building-blocks for targeted development of biologically active molecules. Finn became the Editor-in-Chief of
ACS Combinatorial Science in 2010. Finn served as chair of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry from 2013 until 2024. In 2025, Finn was appointed Regents' Professor in the College of Sciences. In 2013,
Thomson Reuters suggested that Finn could potentially win a Nobel prize for his ground-breaking work on
click chemistry. ==Awards==