Dr. Richard van Breemen, PhD

Prof of Medicinal Chemistry,
Dept of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
College of Pharmacy

Richard B. van Breemen is professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy, a founding member of the Global Hemp Innovation Center, and a principal investigator in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. Prof. van Breemen received his B.A. in chemistry from Oberlin College in 1980 and Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics with Catherine Fenselau from the Johns Hopkins University in 1985. He carried out postdoctoral research in laser desorption mass spectrometry with Robert Cotter at Johns Hopkins before joining North Carolina State University and then the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy. At Illinois, he co-founded the UIC/NIH Center for Botanical Dietary Supplements Research with the late Norman Farnsworth and served as its director until moving to Oregon State University in 2018.

He serves on the USP Dietary Supplement Admission Evaluation and Labeling Expert Committee, on the Chemical Analysis Working Group of the Botanical Safety Consortium, and as the Chief Scientific Officer of Applied Discoveries. His research concerns the discovery and development of natural products as antiviral, antibacterial, and chemoprevention agents, and the investigation of botanical dietary supplements as alternatives to hormone therapy for menopausal women.

Some of Prof. van Breemen’s achievements include:

  • Varro E. Tyler Prize from the American Society of Pharmacognosy
  • Harvey W. Wiley Award from the AOAC International
  • Fellow of the AOAC International
  • Fellow of the International Carotenoid Society
  • Researcher of the Year, University of Illinois at Chicago
  • Oregon State University Impact Award for Outstanding Scholarship

We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from life.

Sir William Osler (1849 – 1919)

Alan Wong

Graduate Student, Dept of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
College of Pharmacy

NIH/NCCIH F31 Predoctoral Fellow

Ruth Muchiri, PhD

Lab Manager,
Linus Pauling Institute

Jialin Liu

Graduate Student, Dept of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
College of Pharmacy

Daniel Nosal, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher

Daniel Simchuk

Graduate Student, Dept of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy

Bianca Flores

2nd Year PhD Student
Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy


Recent Graduates

Luying Chen, PhD

Graduated 2020

Daniel Nosal, PhD

Graduated 2020

Emily Rue

Graduated 2021

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