Francis A. Carey is a native of Pennsylvania, educated in the public schools of Philadelphia, at Drexel University (B.S. in chemistry, 1959), and at Penn State (Ph.D. 1963). Following postdoctoral work at Harvard and military service, he was appointed to the chemistry faculty of the University of Virginia in 1966. Prior to retiring in 2000, he regularly taught the two-semester lecture courses in general chemistry and organic chemistry. With his students, Professor Carey has published over forty research papers in synthetic and mechanistic organic chemistry. In addition to this text, he is coauthor (with Robert C. Atkins) of Organic Chemistry: A Brief Course and (with Richard J. Sundberg) of Advanced Organic Chemistry, a two-volume treatment designed for graduate students and advanced undergraduates. He was a member of the Committee of Examiners of The Graduate Record Examination in Chemistry from 1993-2000.