Dr. Withers has a BSc and PhD in Chemistry from the University of Bristol, UK and did his Post-Doctoral Fellow in Biochemistry at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He began work at UBC in 1982 as an Assistant Professor in Chemistry. He is now the Khorana Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UBC and a Tier 1 CRC Chair in Chemical Biology. He has received many honours, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. His awards include the Whistler Award of the International Carbohydrate Organization and a Charmian Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry UK (in Enzymology).