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John Essigmann is the William R. (1956) & Betsy P. Leitch Professor of Chemistry and a Professor of Toxicology and Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was the Associate Head of the Department of Chemistry until 2012, overseeing both graduate and undergraduate education. From 2012 to 2018, he served as the director of the MIT Center for Environmental Health Sciences. Essigmann focuses on the relationship between structures of lesions formed in the genome by DNA damaging agents and their specific biological endpoints, particularly in relation to mutation, cancer, and cell death. His laboratory conducts studies on carcinogenesis, probing the molecular etiology of human cancer and investigating the mechanisms of action of existing antitumor drugs. Based on his understanding of biochemical mechanisms, Essigmann's lab designs novel compounds for cancer treatment. He has been a lifelong resident of the Boston area, having earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Northeastern University, followed by a Ph.D. from MIT under the supervision of Gerald Wogan, a pioneer in the field of toxicology.