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Peter Andrews

Professor Andrews was Dean (Chemistry), Head of the School of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and the Kansas Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the College from 1980–87. He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Australia Day Honours list in 2004 for his service to scientific research, particularly drug design and the development of an Australian research-based pharmaceutical industry.

Since 1985 he has founded, co-founded or has been a director of more than 10 scientific companies. He now serves as a director of Australian and New Zealand companies and is the author of more than 100 publications and inventor on two patents.

After receiving his Bachelor of Science with honours from the University of Melbourne in 1965, he completed his PhD in 1969 and then devoted himself to researching molecular design, intermolecular interactions, drug structure and activity relationships, and molecular diversity.

He established the first Australian laboratory in the field of computer-assisted drug design at the John Curtin School of Medical Research (Australian National University) in 1975. He then came to the College, leaving in 1987 to take up the position of Dean of Science and Technology at Bond University. He became the Director of the Centre for Drug Design and Development (3D Centre) at the University of Queensland, during which time he was also co-founder of the university's Institute for Molecular Bioscience and CEO of its commercialisation arm, IMBcom.

In 1995, Professor Andrews was one of the founders of Alchemia Pty Ltd, a Queensland-based biotechnology company that specialises in the discovery, development and synthesis of carbohydrate-based molecules for pharmaceutical applications. Professor Andrews has been a board member of Alchemia since the Company's establishment, and has served on the boards of publicly listed biotechnology companies Biota Holdings Limited and Agen Ltd. He is a former Chairman of the Australian Institute of Marine science and current member of the Australian Government’s Industry, Research and Development Board.

Professor Andrews is currently Queensland’s Chief Scientist where he has been working to raise the State's profile as a centre of research and commercialisation where innovation flourishes. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute.