Jeffrey Moore received his BS in chemistry (1984) and PhD in Materials Science and Engineering with Samuel Stupp (1989), both from the University of Illinois. He then went to Caltech as an NSF postdoctoral fellow working with Robert Grubbs. In 1990, he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and then in 1993 returned to UIUC where he is currently the Murchison-Mallory Chair in the Department of Chemistry. Jeff is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the American Chemical Society; he received the Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and has been recognized as a “Faculty Ranked Excellent by their Students." For 14 years, he served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of American Chemical Society. In 2014, he was selected as an HHMI Professor and in 2016 he was chosen as the recipient for the ACS Edward Leete Award in Organic Chemistry. He has published over 400 articles covering topics from technology in the classroom to self-healing polymers, mechanoresponsive materials and shape-persistent macrocycles. He is currently serving as the Director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois.

Through collaborative research at the University of Illinois Beckman Institute, Jeff Moore's lab is studying the intersection between chemistry and mechanics, testing the "mechanophore hypothesis" which states that force drives chemical change in selective and productive ways. The goal is to invent materials that have new functionality, such as the ability to repair themselves when damaged. Such materials promise to be safer and last longer than conventional materials.

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