Squire J. Booker, the Richard Perry Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor of Chemistry and of Biochemistry & Biophysics in the School of Arts & Sciences and the Perelman School of Medicine, has been named a 2026-2027 Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar.

Since 1956, the Phi Beta Kappa Society’s Visiting Scholar Program has offered undergraduates the opportunity to spend time with some of America’s most distinguished scholars. The purpose of the program is to contribute to the intellectual life of the institution by making possible an exchange of ideas between the visiting scholars and the resident faculty and students.

Each year, members of the Committee on the Visiting Scholar Program select top scholars in the liberal arts and sciences to visit universities and colleges where Phi Beta Kappa chapters are located. Visiting scholars spend two days on each campus meeting informally with undergraduates, participating in classroom lectures and seminars, and giving one major lecture open to the academic community and general public.

The 2026-2027 Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars will make over 100 visits during the academic year.

Dr. Booker received a BA in chemistry from Austin College in 1987 and a PhD in biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994. After postdoctoral studies at the Université René Descartes (Paris, France) and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he joined the faculty of Penn State University in 1999 as an independent investigator before assuming his current position at Penn in 2025. Dr. Booker’s research focuses on enzymes that catalyze reactions using radicals. He is an associate editor of Biochemistry ACS and deputy editor of ACS Bio & Med Chem Gold. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.

Founded in 1776, the Phi Beta Kappa Society is the nation’s most prestigious academic honor society. It has chapters at over 290 colleges and universities in the United States, nearly 50 alumni associations, and more than 700,000 members worldwide. The mission of the Phi Beta Kappa Society is to champion education in the liberal arts and sciences, foster freedom of thought, and recognize academic excellence.