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Jennifer Dressman

Prof. Dr. Jennifer B. Dressman is Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology at J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. She received a Pharmacy degree from the Victorian College of Pharmacy and is registered in Victoria.

She was awarded the C. J. Tonkin scholarship in 1976, which she says, ‘was pivotal to my ability to pursue a Masters degree at the College.’ While at the college Professor Dressman was also awarded the honourable Intersearch scholarship allowing her to undertake her Masters Science and PhD under the direction of Professor Takeru Higuchi at The University of Kansas. She then held research positions with Burroughs Wellcome Co. and Merck/Interx.

In 1983, she joined The University of Michigan as an Assistant Professor, and in 1989 was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor. She accepted her current position in the Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology at JW Goethe University in 1994. Professor Dressman's research is centered around developing a predictive model for the delivery of drugs via the gastrointestinal tract, based on physiological as well as drug and dosage form related considerations. Current research projects include the development of biorelevant dissolution tests for forecasting the absorption of Class II drugs and MR dosage forms from the GI tract, predicting food effects on drug absorption, studying the behaviour of poorly soluble weak bases in the GI tract, developing optimized dosage forms for GI diseases and improving oral bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs. In addition, she is working closely with the World Health Organisation to develop guidelines for approval of multisource (generic) drugs and her laboratories were officially made a Collaborating Center of the WHO in 2006.

Professor Dressman's honours and awards include the Pharmacy Board of Victoria Prize, the C.J. Tonkin Scholarship, an Australian PostGraduate Award, the 1987 Ebert Prize, the Proctor and Gamble Award, election to Fellow status in the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) and the 2003 Phoenix Prize. She was Visiting Fellow at the Science and Technology Agency (Tokyo) in 1989 and Visiting Professor at the Universities of Paris XI in 1992 and Auvergne in 1998. In 1994 she was chosen as Parke-Davis Distinguished Scientist by the University of Cincinnati and in 2006 will be the GSK Distinguished Lecturer in Drug Delivery at the University of North Carolina.

Professor Dressman maintains membership in the AAPS, Arbeitsgemeinschaft fuer Pharmazeutische Verfahrenstechnik (APV), Controlled Release Society (CRS) and the American Gastroenterology Association; has served as a member of the Board of Governors of CRS, Member-At-Large of the AAPS and on the Executive Committee of APV and is a Past President of the CRS. She currently holds the position of Marketing and Development Committee Chair at the CRS.