Dr. William J. Greenlee was born in 1950 in Columbus. He began his career in chemistry as a high school student while working at his father’s company, “Chemical Samples Company,” synthesizing and purifying acetylenes and other hydrocarbons. While an undergraduate at The Ohio State University, Greenlee carried out research with Prof. Paul Gassman on strained ring hydrocarbons. After receiving his B.S. degree in chemistry at OSU in 1972, Greenlee was awarded an NSF Predoctoral Fellowship and began graduate studies with Prof. Robert B. Woodward at Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. degree from Harvard in 1976, after completing the first total synthesis of (+/-)-marasmic acid. He was an NIH Posdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University with Prof. Gilbert Stork, and was a member of the team that completed the first total synthesis of cytochalasin B.

Dr. Greenlee joined Merck Research Laboratories in 1977 as a member of the New Lead Discovery department where he became part of the Merck team under Dr. Arthur Patchett that discovered potent inhibitors of angiotensin-converting enzyme, including enalapril (Vasotec™) and lisinopril (Prinivil™). He and his associates investigated the design and synthesis of inhibitors of enzymes of bacterial cell-wall synthesis (alanine racemase, D-Ala-D-Ala ligase) as potential antibacterial agents, and renin inhibitors for hypertension. Greenlee and his group also worked on angiotensin II receptor antagonists, an effort that evolved into a collaboration with scientists at the Dupont Merck Pharmaceutical Company. Greenlee’s team identified several potent angiotensin AT1 antagonists including MK-996, and developed the first potent dual AT1/AT2 antagonists. His group also discovered potent angiotensin AT¬1 agonists, the first nonpeptide agonists of a peptide receptor outside the opioid field. He and his associates also developed orally bioavailable endothelin receptor antagonists. He was promoted to Director in 1989 and to Senior Director in 1992.

In 1995, Greenlee joined the Schering Plough Research Institute (SPRI) as Senior Director, Cardiovascular and CNS Chemical Research, and is currently Vice President, CNS and Cardiovascular Chemistry and High-Throughput Synthesis. At Schering-Plough, he directs a group of 80 chemists in the design and synthesis of potential drug candidates for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, diabetes, thrombosis and chronic pain. His group has discovered six development candidates that have entered clinical trials.

Greenlee chaired the Medicinal Chemistry Gordon Conference in 1997 and has served as Chair for both the Medicinal Chemistry (2003) and Organic Chemistry (2004) Divisions of the American Chemical Society. He served as Section Editor (Cardiovascular and Pulmonary), for Annual Reports in Medicinal Chemistry (1999–2004), and is currently Perspectives Editor for the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. He received the Alfred Burger Award in Medicinal Chemistry from the American Chemical Society in 2004. He is Co-Organizer of the annual Drew Residential School on Medicinal Chemistry, and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ. He is author of more than 130 research publications and inventor of over 60 U.S. patents.