
Dr. Richard van Breemen, PhD
Prof of Medicinal Chemistry,
Dept of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
College of Pharmacy
Richard B. van Breemen is the Linus Pauling Endowed Chair of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Director of 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 post-doctoral 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 is on the editorial boards of Assay and Drug Development Technologies, Biomedical Chromatography and Journal of AOAC International. His research concerns the discovery and development of natural products as 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:
- the Expert Methods Panel award from the AOAC International for his work on analytical methods for dietary supplements
- the Harvey W. Wiley Award from the AOAC International
- the Varro E. Tyler Prize from the American Society of Pharmacognosy
- a Fellow of the International Carotenoid Society.
“We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from life.“
Sir William Osler (1849 – 1919)

Graduate Student,
Dept of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
College of Pharmacy
NIH/NCCIH F31 Predoctoral Fellow

Jialin Liu
Graduate Student,
Dept of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
College of Pharmacy
Recent Graduates

Emily Rue
Graduate Student,
Dept of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
College of Pharmacy