Emeritus Professor Maree Smith
Researcher biography
Professor Maree Smith is Executive Director, CIPDD, Faculty of M+BS (80%) and Professor of Pharmacy, Faculty of HABS (20%).
In the decade prior to her current appointment, Professor Smith built the CIPDD and its commercial interface CIPDD, recognized as a unique, GLP-accredited drug development Centre in Australia. Professor Smith has considerable expertise in biomedical discovery/translation with specialist expertise in the pain field encompassing a portfolio of 15 rodent pain models that mimic individual human pain conditions. This portfolio of models is unique in Australia and rare internationally.
In the 15 years prior to establishing the CIPDD, Professor Maree Smith was a full-time academic in the School of Pharmacy. In brief, she joined the School of Pharmacy as a Lecturer in 1989 and was successively promoted through the academic ranks to Professor in 2004. Prior to that she undertook a PhD and early postdoctoral training in clinical pharmacology with specialist expertise in bioanalytical method development, bioanalysis of human plasma samples, drug metabolism and clinical pharmacokinetics. Her second postdoc was in the field of pain management and pain pharmacology.
In the years, 1990-2005, Maree Smith taught in the Drug Discovery stream of the 2nd, 3rd & 4th years of the undergraduate pharmacy program and she was instrumental in developing innovative courses for the final year of the undergraduate Pharmacy curriculum. More recently, she was instrumental in the development of a course for the M Biotech program at UQ entitled "Quality Systems in Biotechnology". It was delivered successfully for the 6th time in 2015. Maree has successfully advised/co-advised to completion 28 PhD students, 2 Research Masters students and ~40 Honours students. She also served for 14 years as an external evaluator for the TGA.
Maree's Current Research Interests are as follows:
1. Subtle differences in the pathobiology of individual chronic pain conditions
2. Improving preclinical to clinical translation in novel analgesics development
3. Harnessing clinical pharmacology to improve patient outcomes
Awards
2015 Honoured to be included in inaugural list of Australia's top Innovators; viz Knowledge Nation 100
2015 Inaugural Inductee into the Life Sciences Queensland (LSQ) Hall of Fame
2015 Johnson and Johnson Innovaton AusBiotech Industry Excellen Award - Outstanding Leader category.
2015 Elected Fellow, Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS)
2015 Australian Pain Society Distinguished Member Award - For services to the promotion, treatment and science of pain management and lifelong contribution to the Australian Pain Society
2013 UQ Top 5 Inventor - Award by Thomson Reuters and UQ at inaugural Awards
2013 UQ Top 5 Innovator - Award by UniQuest Pty Ltd and UQ at inaugural Awards
2012 Queensland Life Sciences Industry Excellence Award jointly with Dr Jim Aylward
2011 Elected Fellow, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences (ATSE)
2009 Honorary Fellowship, Faculty of Pain Medicine, ANZCA (Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists).
2008 WiT (Women in Technology): Biotech Outstanding Achievement Award
2002 Meritorious Mention for Sustained Excellence in Research Higher Degree Supervision
2001 Meritorious Mention for Sustained Excellence in Research Higher Degree Supervision