Dr. Willmore obtained his BSc in Marine Biology from Guelph University. He obtained his PhD degree in Biochemistry from Carleton University, where he had an opportunity to study biochemical and molecular adaptations of hypoxia-tolerant organisms to oxygen extremes. Following that, he did a postdoctoral fellowship for 5 years at Harvard Medical School in Boston. He re-joined Carleton in 2002, as a faculty member in the Institute of Biochemistry, and the Departments of Biology and Chemistry. Dr. Willmore was Director of Biochemistry at Carleton twice (2010-2013 and 2016-2019).

Dr. Willmore is an expert in cellular biochemistry with a special interest in investigating protein structure/function modification in response to oxygen, focusing on cellular responses to stress including hypoxia, oxidative stress, and toxins. Oxygen-dependent post-translational modifications (hydroxylation, demethylation, redox-dependent modifications) to proteins, and their effects on protein structure and function, is the focus of his lab. He utilizes various proteomic methods to examine these PTMs in 2-D an 3-D cell model systems. The role of such modifications in health and disease is the centre of active investigation in the Willmore Lab.