Ron Smaldone was born in Detroit, Michigan and grew up in the surrounding suburbs.  He attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where he studied chemistry and performed research under the supervision of Prof. Leroy Townsend..  After graduation he moved on to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he joined the laboratory of Prof. Jeff Moore and studied the reactive sieving behavior of m-phenylene(ethynylene) foldamers.  Upon receiving his Ph.D. in 2008 he began work at Northwestern University with Prof. Fraser Stoddart until accepting a position at the University of Texas, Dallas in 2012.  Ron’s interests include playing guitar, and anything mechanical. Google Scholar CV