Stephen Buchwald was born in Bloomington, Indiana. He credits his "young and dynamic" high school chemistry teacher, William Lumbley, for infecting him with his enthusiasm.[1]
Buchwald was a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech with Robert H. Grubbs. In 1984, he joined MIT faculty as an assistant professor of chemistry. He was promoted to associate professor in 1989 and to Professor in 1993. He was named the Camille Dreyfus Professor in 1997. He has coauthored over 435 accepted academic publications and 47 accepted patents.[2]