Dr. Sean Decatur

Sean M. Decatur began service as the President of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in April 2023 after serving for more than nine years as the president of Kenyon College. Prior to assuming the Kenyon presidency, Decatur served as a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Oberlin College from 2008 to 2013. From 1995 to 2008, he was a Professor of Chemistry at Mount Holyoke College, where he led a research program in biophysical chemistry (with funding from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health).

Decatur’s writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education and The New York Times “Room for Debate.” He has twice appeared at SXSW EDU and been a guest on “The Ezra Klein Show.” He is the author of numerous scholarly articles and has received a number of national awards for his scholarship. Decatur was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2017 and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019.