Vacancy - Academic and Finance Administrator
General Staff positions currently available
Academic and Finance Administrator-1200637 [HR link]
Applications are invited for the role of Academic and Finance Administrator. This is a permanent position in the School of Pharmacy, Division of Health Sciences.
The Academic and Finance Administrator will report to the Manager, Administration and Finance and have responsibilities for managing and administering a wide range of activities undertaken by the School of Pharmacy, including processing accounts for payment, monthly reconciliations, preparation of annual budget, timetabling and workload database.
The position requires a record of competence in management of finances and other administrative functions, together with excellent skills in communication, interpersonal relations and competence in the use of software including word processing, spreadsheets and databases. Experience working in a tertiary environment would be an advantage.
This is an excellent opportunity for a positive and enthusiastic person with initiative, and the ability to work well with others to join our School.
Applications quoting reference number 1200637 close on Friday, 15 June 2012.
Graduations in May
The School congratulates its recent PhD graduates during May graduation ceremonies.
Mousab Arafat graduated with a PhD on Saturday 5 May. Mousab completed his PhD in pharmaceutical sciences, with a thesis entitled "Bilosomes as a drug delivery system".
Albert Nguyen graduated with a PhD on Saturday 19 May. Albert was supervised by Joel Tyndall and Brian Monk. His PhD was entitled "Investigation of CAP proteins: GLI pathogenesis-related protein 1, Tex31 and Pry3p". Albert plans to work in academia in Vietnam.
Also graduating, in absentia, on 19 May, was Lee Kien Foo. Lee was supervised by Stephen Duffull, James McGree and John Eccleston. Her PhD was entitled "Optimal design methods that are robust to uncertainty". Lee returned to her academic position in Malaysia.
Photo: (L-R) Dr Joel Tyndall, Dr Albert (AnBinh) Nguyen, Prof Steve Duffull.
Research seminar - 28 May
On Monday 28 May Dr Helen Winter, Senior Lecturer, School of Pharmacy, University of Otago will be giving a seminar on ‘Getting It Right: Communicating DDI Information in Drug Product Labelling’ in Room 713, Adams Building at 1pm.
Networking to make better medicines
Delegates at the recent Formulation and Delivery of Bioactives conference came from a variety of backgrounds and countries, but they all had one thing in common: a desire to make better medicines.
People working in universities, research institutes and industry attended the annual conference hosted by the formulation and delivery of bioactives research theme group at Otago University.
It was the 14th time the conference has been held at the Otago University and it was held in conjunction with the New Zealand chapter of the Controlled Release Society (NZ-CRS).
This year’s topic was “Protein and peptide delivery: Challenges and opportunities”.
A timely and relevant topic, conference convenor and Otago School of Pharmacy chair in pharmaceutical sciences Thomas Rades says, given more and more of the newly approved medicines come from this group, which can be termed “biologicals”.
The FDA states biological products are like other drugs in that they are used for the treatment, prevention or cure of human diseases.
But, in contrast to chemically synthesised small molecular weight drugs which have a well-defined structure, biological products are complex in structure and therefore are difficult to characterise and formulate.
Randy Mrsny, from the University of Bath in the UK was the keynote speaker, discussing “Exploiting the biology of microbial toxins for protein delivery”. Mike Pikal, from the University of Connecticut, US, was the NZ-CRS invited speaker and presented on the “stabilisation of proteins by free-drying formulation and process considerations”.
The conference boasted a vast array of international speakers, including Regina Scherliess from Christian Albrecht University in Germany who discussed nasal delivery of vaccines, Ben Boyd from Monash University who reported on proteins as stabilisers for nano-structured, lipid-based drug delivery systems and Martyn Davies from the University of Nottingham who presented on nanotechnology.
Further highlights of the meeting were the numerous presentations by PhD students in the form of scientific posters and short oral presentations.
The prize for the best poster went to Linda Gron Jensen from Copenhagen University (Visualisation of API precipitation in simulated gastric media by light microscopy).
While the prizes for the best talks went to Miriam Haaser (Terahertz pulsed imaging as an analytical tool to assess the coating characteristics of sustained-release coated pellets) and Sara Hanning (The rheological properties of an emulsion for potential use as a saliva substitute in patients with xerostomia), both from Otago University.
Article by Liane Topham-Kindly for Pharmacy Today
Dean moves on to industry applications
There’s been no slowing down for Ian Tucker since stepping down as school dean.
The former dean and chair in pharmaceutical sciences is moving into the world of innovation and commercialisation of research, recently taking up a new role in this area in Otago University’s health sciences division. Previously, a board member of Otago University’s commercialisation company, the Otago Innovation Ltd, Professor Tucker has taken up the new role of associate dean for research and commercialisation in the division of health sciences. “The Government has sent very clear signals they want universities to be more involved in innovation and enterprise with better links with industry; we’re looking at commercialisation of intellectual property which arises from our research,” he says. New Zealand’s focus on this area began later than other countries like the US, so “we have some catching up to do”, Professor Tucker says.
However, the former dean still has his focus firmly set on pharmacy, taking up the role of associate dean of admissions at the school following his return from sabbatical. He will continue to juggle all his pharmacy roles with the new research innovation role.
After hanging up his dean’s hat in June 2010, Professor Tucker embarked on six months of research and study leave at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmacology at the University of Bath, where he was appointed an honorary professor.
“While there I did a lot of reading and writing in the area of drug delivery to the brain.” He admits, however, it was quite a change from the work he was previously doing as school dean and says it took several months for him to get used to having time to read and write. “It was quite unsettling for the first few months because I was anticipating the next phone call and it took quite a mental adjustment to be able to sit and read and write.”
Professor Tucker visited pharmacy schools at the University of Aston, Birmingham; the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow; Ile de France University; Queen’s University, Belfast; University College and the Royal College of Surgeons, both in Dublin.
He took the opportunity to visit the universities’ innovation offices as well as looking at facilities and building networks and says his time made him realise, “we are pretty well set up here [at Otago]”.
Following his time in the UK and Europe, Professor Tucker returned to Dunedin for several months to finish off research reports before visiting Australia. There he discussed opportunities around collaboration and interchange of students at places like the Ian Wark Institute in Adelaide and Monash University.
Back at the school now, Professor Tucker is enjoying being back in the classroom working with both undergraduate and PhD students while carrying out research on mastitis in dairy cattle.
He is grateful to the New Zealand Pharmacy Education Research Foundation for its support with his recent research projects.
Article by Liane Topham-Kindly for Pharmacy Today
Scholarship opportunity for P2 students
The Jack Noel Henderson Scholarship is open for application by Pharmacy Year 2 students.
Closing date: 4.00 pm Thursday 28 June 2012
NEW social pharmacy postgraduate paper
As part of our Postgraduate Professional Programmes in Pharmacy, we have introduced a new paper on Medicines and Culture. This paper is available in semester 2, and will form part of the Postgraduate Certificate in Pharmacy (Social). This is taught via distance learning at the University. Seeking more details?
Contact Denise Botting for details on enrolment
Research seminar - 7 May
On Monday 7 May Dr Prasad Nishtala, Lecturer, School of Pharmacy, University of Otago will be giving a seminar on ‘Medication Reviews and Drug Burden Index’ in Room 713, Adams Building at 1pm.
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