was born in New York City on October 3, 1937.  His undergraduate years were spent at Columbia University where he earned a BA (1959).  Graduate studies were continued at Columbia University and led to the award of his Ph. D. (November, 1962).  Since graduation from Columbia, he was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin (1962-1963).  On September 1, 1963, he was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Ohio State University.  In 1966 he moved to SUNY Buffalo as an Associate Professor and advanced to the rank of Professor in 1969.  He moved to Emory University in August 1979 as the William P. Timmie Professor of Chemistry.

He has authored over 500 publications in such diverse areas as heterocyclic chemistry, reactive intermediates, photochemistry, small ring chemistry, radical reactions, molecular rearrangements, reaction mechanisms, molecular orbital theory and the synthesis of biochemically active drugs for treatment of diseases.

He has been a research fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (1968-1970), a National Institute of Health Special Senior Postdoctoral Fellow (1972-1973), a NATO Senior Research Fellow (1973), a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellow (1982), an Alexander von HumboldtSenior Scientist (1983),  a JSPS Research Fellow (1984), and a Fulbright Hays Fellowship.  He was a member of the executive committee of the Interamerican Photochemical Society and a Medalist of the Southeast American Chemical Society Section and was Chairman of the Organic Division of the American Chemical Society in 1985-1986.

He has also been a member of the Medicinal Chemistry A Study Section of the NIH (1976-1980), the Chairman of the Gordon Research Conference on Heterocycles (1983), the NSF Workshop on Reactive Intermediates (1984) and recently was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Petroleium Research Fund.  He has served as editor for the Marcel Dekker Organic Photochemistry series as well as for the John Wiley Dipolar Cycloaddition series and is currently the senior consulting editor for JAI Press.  He has also been a visiting Professor at the University of Lyons (France), University of Wurzberg (Germany), University of California at Berkeley, and the Imperial College of Science (England).  He has been awarded the 1990 Southern Chemist prize and has recently served as the President of the International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry.

He has authored approximately 120 publications in the area of synthetic heterocyclic chemistry, and has presented invited lectures at over 110 universities, companies, and symposia. In particular, his research group has demonstrated that 2-azaallyllithiums are excellent cycloaddition partners for the synthesis of pyrrolidine-containing target molecules. In related work, novel methods for the generation of azomethine ylides have also been developed for use in cycloaddition reactions. Another long-standing theme has been the use of azide chemistry to install nitrogen into organic molecules by cycloaddition and rearrangement reactions. At Berry & Associates, Dr. Pearson is leading a research effort in the area of nucleic acid synthesis and purification.  He was awarded a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Award for Newly Appointed Faculty in Chemistry (1984-1989), and was an Eli Lilly Grantee (1988-1989). His interest in teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels led to an Excellence in Education Award and a Faculty Achievement Award at the University of Michigan. Most recently, he received the Katritzky Award in Heterocyclic Chemistry from the International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry and an A. C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society. 

He has been a consultant in pharmaceutical and agricultural industries in both the research and process areas, and has served as an expert witness in the field of heterocyclic chemistry. He has been a member of the Advisory Committee for Personnel at the American Cancer Society, was Series Editor of "Advances in Heterocyclic Natural Products Synthesis," JAI Press, and has organized or co-organized several symposia and scientific meetings. He was Visiting Professor at Emory University and spent a sabbatical at Parke-Davis.