Skip to main content

Sean Decatur

Sean Decatur ’90 is president of the American Museum of Natural History. He is the first African American to serve as the museum’s leader. He was president of Kenyon College from 2013 to 2022. From 2008 to 2013, Sean served as the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Oberlin, where he also taught chemistry and biochemistry. Before Oberlin, he was an assistant and associate professor of chemistry at Mount Holyoke College, also serving as department chair from 2001 to 2004. He is also an advisor to Codon Learning, a science courseware developer.

Decatur graduated with High Honors in chemistry from Swarthmore College in 1990. He went on to complete a Ph.D. in chemistry at Stanford University in 1995.