Bill Charman

Bill Charman is Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (formerly the Victorian College of Pharmacy) and Director, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Science at Monash University. He received his B Pharm from the Victorian College of Pharmacy in 1981, his PhD in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of Kansas in 1985, and a DSc (honoris causa) from the University of London in 2011. He was appointed as the eighth Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor in 2011.

Since becoming Dean in 2007, Bill has led the strategic redevelopment of the Faculty’s infrastructure, education, staffing and research profiles. Major education initiatives include new undergraduate curricula supported by Faculty-designed innovations including Pharmatopia, Pharmville, Virtual Practice Environments, Professional Practice Suites, MyDispense, and the SABER program (undertaken in conjunction with FIP). Major initiatives include $100M building and facility redevelopment; establishment of the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences; and major collaborative drug discovery and development partnerships with GSK, Servier, Takeda, Capsugel, MMV, the CRC for Cancer Therapeutics, and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology. In 2015, in partnership with the Schools of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and University College London, Monash formed “PharmAlliance” to collaboratively undertake major initiatives in education, research and professional engagement.

The 2014 QS World University rankings (in the pharmacy and pharmacology discipline) rank Monash University as the number one program in Australia, the number one program in the AsiaPacific region, and within the top ten worldwide.

He received the GlaxoWellcome International Achievement award from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 1999; Drug Discovery Project of the Year awards from the Medicines for Malaria Venture (Geneva, Switzerland) in 2001, 2006, 2007 and 2010; Australasian Pharmaceutical Sciences Association Medal in 2005; Controlled Release Society International Career Achievement in Oral Drug Delivery Award in 2006; the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress Research Achievement Award in 2007. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists in 2002. In 2014, he received the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Lifetime Achievement Award in Pharmaceutical Sciences.

His research has been characterised by a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach to address major issues in drug discovery (especially for neglected diseases such as malaria), drug delivery and the pharmaceutical sciences. He has published more than 350 scientific papers and communications (>8,000 cites; h-index is 52) and given over 170 invited national and international presentations. Highlights include establishment of the Centre for Drug Candidate Optimisation; co-founding Acrux Limited; collaborative design of one anti-malarial medicine (Synriam® available in India and sub-saharan Africa) and three anti-malarial drug candidates including OZ439 (artefenomel) currently in Phase 2b clinical trials as a single oral dose cure; and establishing major basic and translational research programs in drug delivery.

Previously, he was Chairman (2006-2010) of the Wellcome Trust Seeding Drug Discovery Funding Committee; a member (2005-2011) of the Expert Scientific Advisory Committee of the Medicines for Malaria Venture (www.mmv.org); an advisor to the World Health Organisation; and a member of various Scientific Advisory Boards and two Corporate Boards.