ACCOLADE
RGU PROFESSOR HONOURED WITH NATIONAL FELLOWSHIP
A SENIOR ACADEMIC AT ROBERT GORDON UNIVERSITY (RGU) HAS BEEN HANDED A PRESTIGIOUS HONOUR BY A NATIONAL PHARMACEUTICAL BODY.
P
rofessor Donald Cairns, Head of the School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, has recently been named an Eminent Fellow of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences (APS).
The appointment will be formally recognised at the Academy’s formal black tie dinner held as part of the PharmSci conference at the University of Hertfordshire in September.
It is the latest honour for Professor Cairns, who is already a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, while also serving on an Expert Advisory Group of the Commission of Human Medicines.
Professor Cairns’ career in pharmacy education, following the completion of a PhD at the University of Strathclyde, has seen him teach at Sunderland Polytechnic (now the University of Sunderland), Leicester
8 - SCOTTISH PHARMACIST
Polytechnic (now De Montfort University) and Sunderland School of Pharmacy.
He moved to the position of Associate Head of the School of Pharmacy at RGU in 2003 and was named Head of School in January 2012.
Over the course of his time at RGU, he has successfully attracted over £500,000 in external research funding for the university. During his career, Professor Cairns has led the strategic planning, coordination, development and supervision of academic work at the School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences.
Professor Cairns obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from the University of Strathclyde in 1980 and after a pre-registration year spent in hospital pharmacy, he returned to Strathclyde to undertake a PhD on the synthesis and properties of benzylimidazolines.
Following a year as a post-doctoral research fellow in the department of pharmacy at Sunderland Polytechnic (now the University of Sunderland), Professor Cairns moved to Leicester Polytechnic (now De Montfort University) where he held a five-year lectureship in Pharmacy.
In 1992 Professor Cairns was appointed senior lecturer in medicinal chemistry in Sunderland School of Pharmacy and in 2003 moved to RGU as the Associate Head of the School of Pharmacy. In 2006, he was promoted to Professor of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry at RGU. He has been external examiner at Strathclyde, Liverpool, Aberdeen and Belfast Schools of Pharmacy and has authored over 70 peer-reviewed research papers. His research interests include the design and synthesis of selective anticancer agents, the molecular modelling of drug/DNA interactions and the design of prodrugs for the
treatment of nephropathic cystinosis.
Professor Cairn’s research interests include the design and synthesis of selective anticancer agents, the molecular modelling of drug and DNA interactions; and the design of prodrugs for the treatment of nephropathic cystinosis. Specific interests include: the design and synthesis of novel prodrugs for the treatment of nephropathic cystinosis, the design and synthesis of amino- substituted anthraquinones and quinoxalines as selective ligands for higher order DNA (mainly triplex and tetraplex) and as inhibitors of telomerase.
‘I am very pleased and flattered to have been designated an Eminent Fellow by APS,’ Professor Cairns told SP. ‘I would like to thank my friends and colleagues for their help and support, without which I could not have reached the levels I have in my career.’ •
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