Department of Pharmacology (1954 - )

The Department of Pharmacology at the University of Melbourne was created in 1954, having come of age within the Department of Physiology.

In its first ten years it was responsible for several clinically useful drugs that were subsequently used world-wide. Later contributions included insights into prejunctional receptor systems, and revamped first aid procedures following snakebite

On the teaching side, Department staff provided tuition in pharmacology to medical, dental, science, physiotherapy, nursing and optometry students.

The first three professors of pharmacology were Frank Shaw, Michael Rand and Jim Angus.

• Pharmacology Department

In April 1953, the professor of physiology at the University of Melbourne, Roy Douglas Wright, made a concerted effort to establish a Department of Pharmacology when it became known that Frank Shaw had been offered a Chair of Pharmacology at the University of California. At the time, Shaw was the highly regarded associate professor (pharmacology) within the Physiology Department, an effective researcher whom Wright was loathe to lose.

To ensure that Shaw did not leave, Wright lobbied the University to establish a Chair of Pharmacology. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor George Paton, agreed that a Chair could be created provided 1500 pounds was forthcoming from outside sources. By June, Wright had secured promises totalling 1800 pounds per year for at least five years from six companies involved in pharmacological research - Nicholas, Sigma, Burroughs and Wellcome, ICI, Woods, and Fawns & McAllen. In August, the University Council approved the establishment of the Chair and, in December, it ratified Shaw's appointment as the first professor and chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Melbourne. He took up the appointment on 1 January, 1954.

During the following decades, the Department expanded its teaching role to provide training in pharmacology to hundreds of students each year studying medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy and optometry. The nature of research undertaken in the Department changed, paralleling the research interests and personal philosophies of the incumbent professor of pharmacology.

Faculty

• Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne (1991 - )