A scientist who was a key member of the team which created the anti-impotence drug Viagra will be at the University of Aberdeen today. (November 14).
The University hopes the visit of Dr Gill Samuels, a distinguished scientist who was awarded the CBE for her work as well as the CBI First Woman of Science Award, will help inspire its students to become the next generation of industrial scientists.
PhD students and postdoctoral fellows within the University's College of Life Sciences and Medicine will get the opportunity to meet and question Dr Samuels, who is regarded as one of the leading women in UK science.
Professor Jenny Mordue, Head of the University's Graduate School within the College of Life Sciences and Medicine, invited Dr Samuels to visit the University. She said: "We are training postgraduate students to enter a wide variety of jobs across industry.
"Only 23% of UK postgraduates go into postdoctoral work and academia, which means we are training 77% to go into roles in industry, in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and other health services.
“To bring a successful industrial scientist like Dr Samuels to Aberdeen should be very beneficial for our post graduates and provide them with new insights into how they can apply their knowledge and skills in a commercial environment. She is an excellent role model.”
Dr Samuels has done much work in promoting women in science and one of her roles is Vice President of the Association of Women in Science and Engineering.
The challenges of tackling public health issues in developed and developing countries is also close to Dr Samuels’ heart.
She will deliver a lecture at the University entitled The Pharmaceutical industry and Public Health Challenges of the 21st Century. This will include discussion as to the roles of the various stakeholders –governments, patients, medical professions, health-care providers, funders and pharmaceutical companies – involved in delivering improved public health, as well as the problems and constraints they face.
A physiologist and neuropharmacologist, Dr Samuels was, until she retired in April, Executive Director of Science Policy for Europe, for Pfizer, the world’s largest phamceutical company. Before that appointment, she was Director of Cardiovascular Biology for Pfizer, where she helped several new medicines that are now licensed to treat patients.
She has served on a number of committees and panels for key organisations and has also sat on Government Commissions and World Health Organization (WHO) working groups.
Dr Samuels was awarded the CBE for services to the Bioscience and Pharmaceutical industries in 2002. Earlier this year the CBI honoured Dr Samuels with the First Woman of Science Award.
She said of her trip to the University: “I’m very much looking forward to meeting postgraduates and postdoctoral fellows at the Graduate School. It’s always good to talk to young people and those just beginning their careers, and I hope to encourage some of them to pursue careers in industry. Discovering and developing new medicines is extremely challenging, and our ability to find tomorrow’s treatments depends on finding the best scientific talent out there.”