Pharmacy Professor Named Royal Society of Chemistry Fellow

Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) Chair of the Pharmaceutical and Applied Life Sciences Department and Professor of Biopharmaceutical Sciences John Krstenansky can now add a new designation to his accomplished career in industry and academia: Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. As a Fellow, he joins a United Kingdom-based professional organization with 54,000 members and a 175-year heritage of advancing excellence in the chemical sciences.

“This designation is an honor that must be earned and we are very proud of John’s selection as a Fellow,” said Kathy Webster, the Founding Dean of KGI’s School of Pharmacy. “It recognizes his accomplishments in the field while illustrating his tremendous expertise and sustained contributions to the field.”

Krstenansky joined KGI’s School of Pharmacy as a founding faculty member in 2013. He came to KGI from Marshall University in West Virginia, where he was a founding faculty member, professor and director of medicinal chemistry in the Department of Pharmaceutical Science and Research. He also helped launch and served as an associate professor of medicinal medicine at Loma Linda University’s School of Pharmacy.

Earlier, Krstenansky spent 19 years in the pharmaceutical industry, where his leadership roles included serving as vice president, chemistry, for Consensus Pharmaceuticals in Massachusetts and as vice president, research and development, at Enzymed in Iowa. He also has been a principal scientist, senior staff researcher and research section leader at Roche Bioscience/Syntex Discovery Research and a senior research biochemist at the Marion Merrell Dow Research Institute.

At KGI, Krstenansky said: “I’m applying what I learned from my career in the pharmaceutical industry. I teach drug design and can present from a real-world perspective how it’s done and how decisions are made.”

Adding the designation as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry to his credentials also offers benefits to KGI. As Krstenansky explained, “Having a faculty member recognized in a wider sense brings a certain prestige to the school and the accomplishments of its faculty in the academic community.”