William Zhao

B.Sc., UChicago, 2023

Will is from the beautiful city of Toronto, Ontario. Self-identifying as a somewhat quirky polymath, he attended the University of Chicago and graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in chemistry and a B.A. in history. While at UChicago, he conducted research in Professor Viresh Rawal’s lab. Under the supervision of Prof. Rawal, he prepared early-stage precursors for an ambiguine total synthesis project. Immensely excited by photoredox chemistry, he decided to continue his graduate studies at Princeton and joined the MacMillan lab in August 2023. In his free time, Will enjoys cooking, reading, and creative writing.

Fun Facts

• Will has been a full-time reader and part-time editor of Wikipedia since 2012.
• As an amateur, undergraduate-trained historian, Will enjoys reading Québécois, Central European, and Latin American history.
• Will has a broad yet niche music taste as he enjoys Irish ballads, 90s Eurodance, Romanian pop, medieval French virelais, Reggaeton, classical, Canadian rock, and more—all of them, in no particular order. (Ask him about his favourite bands and artists!)
• Moving to Princeton from the shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Ontario, Will found Lake Carnegie’s alleged status as a lake questionable.