Prof Simon Ward

Simon Ward is currently the Sêr Cymru Professor in Translational Drug Discovery and Director of the Medicines Institute at Cardiff University.
Simon has an MA in Natural Sciences and PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from Cambridge University, UK. He has a wide-ranging experience from over 25 years of drug discovery in major pharmaceutical companies, biotech & academia (GlaxoSmithKline, BioCrea, Knoll Pharmaceuticals, Vernalis, Chiroscience, University of Sussex, Cardiff University) and specialist experience of discovering and developing drugs for patients with neurological and psychiatric illness and against cancers. He has led multidisciplinary project teams & medicinal chemistry groups from early stages through to clinical studies, bringing multiple molecules into clinical development for a wide range of diseases. Within academia, he has successfully secured over £40M funding and also has considerable experience of successful in- and out-licencing, due diligence and commercial deal making.
Simon is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and is an internationally recognised expert in medicinal chemistry leading to many external roles on scientific advisory boards, charity and government funding panels and scientific societies. Simon is also joint lead editor for both the Handbook of Medicinal Chemistry (Royal Society of Chemistry) and Comprehensive Medicinal Chemistry Vol III (Elsevier) and leads the biannual Royal Society of Chemistry medicinal chemistry residential summer school.