Michael P. Doyle received a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from College of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota in 1964; and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa (where he was an NIH Fellow with W. Trahanovsky) in 1968.
Following a postdoctoral position at University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, Doyle joined the faculty at Hope College in 1968. In 1984, he moved to Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and in 1997 he became Vice President, then President, of Research Corporation and Professor of Chemistry at University of Arizona.
In 2003, he moved to University of Maryland where he was Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Doyle wrote or coauthored ten books, including “Basic Organic Stereochemistry,” 20 book chapters, and co-authored more than 270 journal publications. The inventor of chiral dirhodium carboxamidate catalysts known as “Doyle catalysts,” his research is focused on applications with metal carbene transformations, Lewis acid catalyzed reactions, and selective catalytic oxidations.