Our people - Professor Allan Evans
I
have been an academic at UniSA for about 14 years now and in some ways I
have come full circle. In 1982 I graduated in pharmacy from the SA
Institute of Technology, one of UniSA's founding institutes, and then
worked as a pharmacist for two years in community and hospital
environments. I always knew that I wanted to get involved in research -
understanding how drugs actually get into the body and exert their
effects was what intrigued me most - and so in 1985 I returned to SAIT
as a research student. It is a real sign of how much things have changed
to remember that I could not do my PhD with the Institute. I had to
enrol through the University of Adelaide, even though just about all of
my research work was conducted in the Reid building with SAIT staff.
When I moved to the University of Manchester as a postdoctoral fellow
studying under Professor Malcolm Rowland, the author of some of our key
undergraduate textbooks, it was an ambition fulfilled. It was an
extremely strong mentoring environment.
Returning to the new entity that was UniSA in 1992 as a level B academic, I had a strong sense that there would be opportunities here - and there have been. I've been able to exercise research creativity and to develop strong and broad links with the pharmaceutical industry to explore novel and improved forms of drug delivery.
Almost 20 years after finishing my PhD thesis, where I was exploring the mechanism of action of a particular group of compounds, my colleagues and I were able to form a spin-off company, PharmaQuest Pty Ltd, to commercialise a skin cancer prevention gel using compounds from the very same chemical class. Working with ITEK to raise commercial interest and working capital was most rewarding.
We are now in an environment where the future wealth of
universities will be dictated by entrepreneurship and the successful
commercialisation of research outcomes, and it has been pleasing to play a
role in taking up this new challenge.
The recent formation of the Sansom Institute, within the School of Pharmacy
and Medical Sciences, will continue to ensure that new academics are given
the opportunity to become part of a successful research environment that
understands how vital it is to build strong industry links.
UniSA continues to emerge as an institution that nurtures creativity and
entrepreneurship - it is also a place where hard work is rewarded and where
academics have the freedom to pursue research goals in a highly
collaborative environment.
Prof Allan Evans is Head of the School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences.