This year’s James D White Lecturer was Professor Dale Boger from the Scripps Research Institute.  He is a world-renown synthetic organic and medicinal chemist who has successfully taken multiple compounds into advanced clinical trials.  His talk was on the important anticancer compound vinblastine. Professor Boger’s lab has developed an amazing (and short) synthetic approach to make this compound.  Equally impressive, they have discovered an analogue that is active in vinblastine resistant cell lines. The afternoon before the seminar, we had a wonderful gathering at Jim’s house where all the students got to interact with Dale in a casual setting over some great food.  Dale is a wonderful, engaging individual and was a great choice for this event!