Medicinal Chemistry Faculty

Professor Ryan A. Altman received his B.S. in chemistry from Creighton University in 2003 and his Ph.D. in organic Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008. He completed his training at the University of California, Irvine as a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow from 2008–2011.

Assistant Professor Steven Bloom completed his postdoctoral work at Princeton University. He earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from John Hopkins University and a bachelor of science in chemistry and biochemistry from McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. 

Assistant Professor Zarko Boskovic completed his postdoctoral work at the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University. He earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a bachelor of science in chemistry from the University of Niš, Serbia.

Associate Professor Apurba Dutta earned a Ph.D. from North-Eastern Hill University in Shillong, India in 1989 and was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Konstanz in Germany from 1991-1992. He was also a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Kansas from 1993-1994.

Assistant Professor Mark Farrell earned a Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry and a bachelor of science in chemistry from the National University Ireland.

Robert Hanzlik earned his B.A. in chemistry and biology from Southern Illinois University, and completed his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at Stanford University.

Distinguished Professor Blake Peterson earned a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Nevada, Reno and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles. He was a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University from 1995-1998, an American Cancer Society Research Scholar in 2003, and a Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar in 2003.

Dr. Thomas Prisinzano earned a bachelor’s in chemistry from the University of Delaware and a doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences from Virginia Commonwealth University. He received postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

Distinguished Professor Barbara Timmermann joined the School of Pharmacy faculty as chair of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry in August of 2005. She came to KU after an academic career of close to 25 years at the University of Arizona, where she attained the title of Regents Professor.

Michael Wolfe earned a B.S. in chemistry from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science and a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Kansas.  After a postdoctoral stint at the University of Kansas, he was a Pharmacology Research Associate Trainee (PRAT Fellow) at the National Institutes of Health.