Herbert Waite is a professor in both the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry,  and Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology at UCSB. He was awarded an A.B. from Harvard and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Duke University before doing post-doctoral studies at the Universities of Copenhagen and Toronto. Waite held faculty appointments at the University of Connecticut Medical Center and the University of Delaware before moving to UCSB in 1999. He has pioneered the discovery of underwater adhesive chemistries in marine organisms. Primary present research focus is on structure-function relationships in load- and impact-bearing biomolecular materials. Waite was co-leader with Song-I Han in the last IRG-1 that focused on “Electrostatic and H-bonding Interactions in Soft Materials” and remains co-leader in the approved new IRG-1 on “Bio-inspired Wet Adhesion”.