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 Chairmans
Report |
Eddie French
Chair, APS
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Welcome to the first edition
of the Newsletter under your new Board. This is the start of a new year
for the Academy following our Annual General Meeting at BPC 2008 and I
would like to start this message by commenting on the changes to the
Board of the APS.
Firstly, I would like to thank David Wyatt for his sterling leadership
as Chair over the last year. David has been a member of the board for
six years and I am glad that he will be staying on the Board and the
Executive as Immediate Past Chair. His considered words and
knowledgeable counsel is highly valued. I would also like to mention
some colleagues who are stepping down from the Board. This includes two
past chairs - Chris Doherty and Ijeoma Uchegbu - both of whom will
continue to contribute to the Academy in different ways (Chris has
volunteered to join the Advisory Board and Ijeoma will be Science Chair
for Science@BPC 2009), Dr Jim Murray who stands down after many years of
service to the APS and finally and by no mean least, Dr. Carol Thomson
who in her time was both Treasurer and Vice Chair of the Academy and was
one of the original elected members when the Academy was established. I
would like to greatly thank all these colleagues for the contributions
they have made to the Academy.
I now want to talk briefly about the structure of the new Board. We have
added in some additional structure in the Board with the appointment of
Professor Martin Snowden as Vice Chair. In addition to the multitude of
tasks we are bound to ask him to do, Martin will have responsibility for
liaising with our Advisory Board and Fellows. Following the recent
nomination process there are several new faces on the APS board who
bring with them some fresh energy and I wish to welcome those people to
the board and look forward to working with them. The Board now
comprises:
Chair
Dr Eddie French from Pfizer Global R&D
Vice Chair
Professor Martin Snowden from University of Greenwich
Treasurer
Dr Richard Storey from Astra Zeneca
Immediate Past Chair
Dr David Wyatt from GSK
Board members;
Prof. Jayne Lawrence, Dr Jeremy Clarke, Dr Claire Thompson, Dr Rob
Price, Prof. Duncan Craig, Helen Barker, Prof Donald Cairns, Dr.
Francesca Greco and Dr. Claire Martin
This promises to be both an interesting and exciting year for the
Academy with the transitional changes in the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society and the formation of a new professional body. This has been
covered in detail in David’s report in the last newsletter so I am not
going to repeat this, just to say it is important that we all remain
engaged with this process and it is important that opinions are fed
through to the transitional committee (TransCom). This can be done via
the ‘Comments’ page on TransCom’s website
www.transitionalcommittee.com.
As we have stated, it has always been a goal of the APS to be the home
of the professional pharmaceutical scientist. The reorganization of the
RPSGB is an excellent opportunity for pharmaceutical scientists. It is
not every year that a Royal Society is restructured and we are hopeful
that Pharmaceutical Science will be at the heart of it. Several members
of the Board are involved in the transitional process through
participation in TransCom Working Groups and Sub-Committees. We will be
working to ensure that we get the best possible deal for Pharmaceutical
Scientists in any new organisation.
With this going on it would be easy for the Board to be distracted from
our other roles. However, it is essential for the organisation that we
remain focussed on our other deliverables:
- We have a range of high quality symposia in preparation for what
remains of this year and 2009. Several of these are run in collaboration
with RPSGB and many others are co-badged with other science groups with
whom we share a scientific interest.
- We will be working closely with the New Scientist Focus Group to
develop a strategy for bringing in new members to the Academy with
particular attention on postgraduate students and graduate
scientists..excellent vehicles to facilitate this.
- We will be looking to continue the development of our strategy for
interaction with EUFEPS, FIP and AAPS as well as other societies such as
JPAG, ICRS which also play a huge role in pharmaceutical science in the
UK.
- We will look at the best ways to support and develop our Focus Groups.
Some of these groups are highly active and vibrant; others need
reinvigorating and we are always looking for new sections. These groups
facilitate the sharing of new science and networking and are at the core
of the Academy.
Finally, I wanted to share with you what has been the highlight (to
date) of my involvement with the Academy, which was my initial task as
Chair to undertake the speech at the Annual Academy Dinner at BPC 2008.
The highlight was not the speech itself (a nerve-wracking affair at the
best of times!) but in being in the privileged position to induct the
new APS Fellows. In awarding Fellowships to Professors Gregory
Gregoriadis Roger Davey and John Staniforth. the Academy is recognising
the significant contribution to both national and international
pharmaceutical science that these individuals have made and it was a
pleasure for me to share a stage with them.
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Academy Chair Dr. Eddie French and new Academy Fellow Prof. Roger Davey |
Academy Chair Dr. Eddie French and new Academy Fellow Prof. Gregory
Gregoriadis |
On behalf of the
Board, I would like to encourage you to be as active in the Academy as
possible and please if you have ideas or feedback we are always open to
your views.
Eddie French
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