May 8, 2008
Thomas Baillie named new dean of Pharmacy
By Bob Roseth
News & Information &
Melinda Young
School of Pharmacy
Thomas Baillie has been selected to become the next dean of the UW School of Pharmacy. His appointment, effective Oct. 1, is subject to approval by the UW Board of Regents.
Baillie has had a distinguished academic career and also has worked in leadership positions in private industry. Baillie has been at Merck & Co., Inc., a global pharmaceutical company, since 1994. He was executive director of preclinical drug metabolism from 1994 to 1996, vice president of drug metabolism from 1996 to 2007 and, most recently, vice president and global head of drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics. In the latter role, he was head of an organization of 350 employees and reported to the senior vice president for worldwide preclinical development.
Baillie’s academic career began at the University of London, in 1975, where he was a lecturer in analytical chemistry in the Department of Clinical Pharmacology. In 1978 he joined the University of California-San Francisco and, in 1981, he became a member of the pharmacy faculty at the UW, where he stayed until joining Merck in 1994. During his academic career, Baillie has served on a number of advisory and scientific review panels at both the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and he was awarded a Senior International Fogarty Fellowship (1988- 89) for research conducted at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
Announcing Baillie’s selection last week, Provost Phyllis Wise said, “I am extremely pleased that Tom Baillie will be returning to the UW to lead the school where he spent so many productive and satisfying years on the faculty. “The combination of his experience and familiarity with the UW and his frontline experience in industry make him a very attractive candidate — uniquely qualified — to lead the School of Pharmacy. We’re very excited by his return.”
Baillie’s research interests lie in the application of mass spectrometry and associated techniques to mechanistic studies in the fields of foreign compound metabolism and chemical toxicology. He is author of some 250 publications, serves on the advisory boards of several scientific journals and professional organizations and, in 2002, he was a co-recipient of the James R. Gillette Award from the American Society of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics.
Baillie has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, a Ph.D. in organic chemistry, and D.Sc. in chemistry from the University of Glasgow. He also has an M.Sc.in biochemistry from the University of London.
Dean Sidney Nelson, professor of medicinal chemistry and chair of the UW Health Sciences Board of Deans, will step down as dean of the School of Pharmacy at the end of September. He has held the position since 1995, effectively making him the longest-tenured dean on campus.
Under his charge, the school converted to a doctor of pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree program from a bachelor-of-science program. It has been ranked No. 1 three times among pharmacy schools nationwide in National Institutes of Health and total research grant funding (per full-time equivalent faculty).
This past year, the American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists named Nelson Outstanding Dean of the Year. After taking a research sabbatical in Great Britain, he will continue as a full-time professor in the school.
The UW School of Pharmacy is recognized nationally as an innovative leader in pharmacy education, scholarship, and research. Its students are among the best and the brightest and continue to be an influential force long after graduation. The school ranks fifth among pharmacy schools in the country, according to annual rankings of graduate and professional programs provided by U.S. News & World Report.
