Ijeoma Uchegbu

Ijeoma Uchegbu is a Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at UCL (University College London), a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Oxford Centre for Drug Delivery Devices at the University of Oxford. She is also the Chief Scientific Officer and Co-founder of Nanomerics, a speciality pharmaceutical company that seeks to create better medicines by enhancing and repurposing existing drugs.

Ijeoma has a background in physical science, which informs her work stretching from the molecular design of pharmaceuticals through to how these products work in the real world. Her research team has successfully designed nanosystems which deliver genes to tumours and facilitate the oral absorption of hydrophobic drugs.

Starting her career as a pharmacist in Nigeria, she later went on to study for a PhD from the School of Pharmacy, University of London. Ijeoma also has well-established experience of working in an advisory capacity on race equality as Co-chair of UCL’s Race Equality Steering Group and UCL Provost’s envoy for Race Equality.

She is a Council member of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Editor of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. In 2012, she was awarded Scientist of the Year by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.