Born in Washington, Pennsylvania, Colin received an Sc. B. from Brown University in 2015. He then pursued graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley in the group of Prof. Jeff Long and worked as a Beckman postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Prof. Dave MacMillan at Princeton University. Colin will return to UC Berkeley in July 2025 as an assistant professor, where he aims to utilize physical stimuli— including light, electricity, and magnetic exchange— to enable new methods for pharmaceutical and fine chemical synthesis.

Outside of the lab, Colin is passionate about teaching and science outreach, particularly at the K–12 level.