Professor Ho-Leung Fung (PhC 1967)
Professor of pharmaceutical sciences
University at Buffalo, USA

Ho-Leung Fung is an international leader in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences. He is currently professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University at Buffalo (UB), The State University of New York, in the USA.

Professor Fung completed his pharmaceutical certificate at the Victorian College of Pharmacy (now Monash University’s Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences) in 1967. He went on to complete his PhD in analytical pharmaceutical chemistry and pharmaceutics at the University of Kansas in 1970. In the same year, he was appointed assistant professor of pharmaceutics at UB. In 1978, he was appointed chairman of the department and in 1980 he became a professor.

Professor Fung has published more than 200 papers on his research interests which include pharmacokinetics (the study of drug movement into, within and out of the body) and pharmacodynamics (the study of how the concentration of a drug relates to its pharmacological effects). He has applied these disciplines to investigate the properties of a group of cardiovascular drugs called organic nitrates. His work has resulted in an understanding of the mechanisms of action of these drugs, particularly in relation to the phenomenon of nitrate tolerance.

In 2008, Monash University awarded Professor Fung an honorary Doctor of Laws. He has received other awards for outstanding achievement including:

• The Takeru and Aya Higuchi Memorial Award from Japan’s Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology in 1995;
• The Research Achievement Award in Pharmacodynamics from the American Pharmaceutical Association in 1992;
• The Research Achievement Award in Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics and Drug Metabolism from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists in 1988; and
• The Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) Award from the National Institutes of Health in 1988.

Professor Fung is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (since 1990) and of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences (since 1982). He is also a fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (since 1987) which recently appointed him as editor-in-chief of their online publication The AAPS Journal.

In November 2010, Professor Fung will chair the Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress in New Orleans, USA.