Prof. Nicholas H. Oberlies
University of North Carolina at Greensboro (NC)

Prof. Oberlies got his PhD in medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy (1997) at Purdue University and Industrial postdoc at American Cyanamid, working on herbicidal, insecticidal, and fungicidal leads. At Research Triangle Institute (Research Triangle Park, NC; 1998-2009), worked with Drs. Monroe Wall and Mansukh Wani, the co-discovers of the anticancer agents, taxol and camptothecin. Since 2009 he is Patricia A. Sullivan Distinguished Professor at University of North Carolina at Greensboro (NC) where he leads a vibrant research group of ~15 scientists (including students, postdocs, and professional staff) in the Dept. of Chemistry & Biochemistry. His active projects use fungal cultures as a source for anticancer, antibiotic, antifungal, and antimalarial drug leads, including the gram-scale production of fungal metabolites, the development of non-natural natural products, and the medicinal chemistry optimization of leads.
He was President of the American Society of Pharmacognosy (2020-2021) and won many Awards and Honors (Matt Suffness Young Investigator Award, American Society of Pharmacognosy, Research Excellence Award, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Carolina Distinguished Speaker Award, NC Section of the American Chemical Society).