Advisory Board

Robin Cooper, Ph.D., D.Sc.

Dr. Cooper brings more than 30 years of pharmaceutical development experience to zuChem. He recently retired from Rigel Pharmaceuticals where he served as Senior Vice President of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Previously, throughout a more than 30-year career at Eli Lilly and Company, Dr. Cooper held a number of senior chemistry development research positions, in which he made significant contributions to developing Lilly’s preeminent position in anti-infectives. He also discovered oritavancin, an anti-infective licensed to InterMune, Inc. presently in phase III clinical trials. Dr. Cooper received his Ph.D. in 1962 from Queen Mary College/Imperial College, followed by a year with Nobel Laureate Sir Derek Barton in London. He was awarded a D.Sc. by the University of London in 1985.

David Dodds, Ph.D.

Dr. Dodds was most recently Director of Fermentation & Biocatalysis Development with Bristol-Myers Squibb. He previously held a position at Sepracor in its start-up phase, and was in charge of enzyme catalysis development.  This work ultimately produced a number of patents on the enzymatic resolution of NSAIDs and Diltiazem. He subsequently joined Schering-Plough to help establish their biocatalysis group, before joining Bristol-Myers Squibb. He has been involved in multiple aspects of drug manufacturing, including chemical and fermentation process development molecular biology and microbiology and the development of intellectual property in these areas. He has a B.Sc. in Biochemistry, a M.Sc. in Biological Chemistry, a Ph.D. in Organic Synthesis, all from the University of Toronto.

William Dowd, Ph.D.

Dr. Dowd retired in 2000 as the global R&D director for Industrial Biotechnology for Dow Chemical where he had responsibility for the technology focus of Dow’s biotechnology commercial activities. During a more than 30- year tenure at Dow, he held a wide range of process research and corporate R&D positions including director of the Materials R&D laboratory, and platform leader, BioMaterials. He is currently also a member of the Board of Directors of Neoprobe Corporation and the Biotechnology Research and Development Corporation. Dr. Dowd received his Ph.D. in 1970 in Physical-Organic Chemistry from Indiana University.