Dr. Thannhauser received his undergraduate training at the State University of New York at Cortland, graduating with a BA in Biology in 1974. He served in several technical positions in the Department of Chemistry of Cornell University before moving to the Cornell Biotechnology Program to direct the Biotechnology Resource Center (BRC) in 1984. While serving as the BRC Director Dr. Thannhauser completed a PhD in Chemistry under the guidance of Professor H. A. Scheraga. Other members of his Special Committee included Professors F. W. McLafferty and George Morrison. Dr. Thannhauser served as BRC Director until 2002 when he joined the ARS to establish the Functional and Comparative Proteomics Center. He is currently a member of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry and the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities where he served on the Board of Directors from 2000-2004. His research interests include physical and analytical protein chemistry and functional and comparative proteomics, particularly in species with unsequenced genomes.