 Professor Margaret Brimble Margaret Brimble (born Auckland) graduated from the University of Auckland with an MSc (1st class hons) in Chemistry. In 1983, she was awarded a UK Commonwealth Scholarship to undertake her PhD studies at Southampton University. In 1986 she was appointed as a lecturer at Massey University. After a visiting Professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, she moved to the University of Sydney in 1995 and was promoted to Reader in Organic Chemistry. She returned to New Zealand in 1999 to take up the Chair of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Auckland. Her research focuses on the synthesis of bioactive natural products (especially molecules derived from extreme environments and shellfish toxins) as novel anticancer, antibacterial and antiviral agents, the synthesis of alkaloids and peptidomimetics for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, and the synthesis of peptide components for melanoma vaccines. She developed the drug candidate NNZ2566 for Neuren Pharmaceuticals that is in phase 2b clinical trials for traumatic brain injury in partnership with the US Army. She is currently Chair of the Rutherford Foundation, Marsden Fund Councillor and Convenor of the Physical Sciences Panel, Past-President of the International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry, and a principal investigator in the Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery (a CoRE) and the International Advisory Boards for Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, Natural Products Reports, Synthesis and Synlett. Margaret was named the 2007 L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Laureate for Asia-Pacific in Materials Science. In 2008, was awarded the 2008 World Class New Zealand Award in the Research, Science, Technology and Academia category and held a prestigious James Cook Research Fellowship from the Royal Society of New Zealand. She was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (Queen’s Honour) for her service to science and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry. |
