Alex Adronov was born in Kaunas, Lithuania (part of former USSR), and immigrated to Canada with his family when he was 7 years old. He grew up in Windsor, Ontario, and attended W. C. Kennedy Collegiate Institute (secondary school). He received his B.Sc. degree in Honours Biological Chemistry from...
Alex Adronov was born in Kaunas, Lithuania (part of former USSR), and immigrated to Canada with his family when he was 7 years old. He grew up in Windsor, Ontario, and attended W. C. Kennedy Collegiate Institute (secondary school). He received his B.Sc. degree in Honours Biological Chemistry from McMaster University in 1996. During his undergraduate studies, he participated in research projects within the groups of Professors Francoise Winnik (summer, 1994) and Cornelia Bohne (summer, 1995), during which time he developed his interest in polymers, chromophores, and fluorescence spectroscopy. His senior thesis was carried out in the group of Professor Michael Brook, solidifying his interest in synthetic polymer chemistry. He then went on to graduate studies in the group of Professor Jean M. J. Frechet at UC Berkeley. His thesis project, entitled "Light Harvesting Dendrimers", involved the synthesis and study of chromophore-functionalized dendrimers that exhibited non-radiative energy transfer characteristics (Chem. Commun. 2000, 1701). He received his Ph.D. in 2001, and immediately took up an Assistant Professor position at McMaster University, where he has been ever since. He was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure in 2007. In 2009, he became the Associate Chair of Graduate Studies in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at McMaster.