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Stephen Kelley joins School as Lecturer in Pharmacology

Published on 26 April 2019

Dr Stephen Kelley has joined the School as a lecturer in pharmacology as part of the D’Arcy Thompson Unit.

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Dr Stephen Kelley has joined the School as a lecturer in pharmacology as part of the D’Arcy Thompson Unit. Stephen has built up extensive research and teaching experience through-out his career at institutions in the US and UK.

Stephen developed a strong interest in psychopharmacology whilst obtaining his Bachelor’s degree at Rhode Island College. This led to him undertaking a Master’s degree in Experimental Psychology at the University of Memphis, focusing on neuropharmacology where he investigated how specific brain areas can modulate the effects of psychostimulants. At the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center in San Francisco, my research focused on how drugs acting at GABAA and 5-HT3 receptors can produce behavioural and neurochemical changes influencing addiction and anxiety.

Stephen came to the UK to undertake a PhD in Pharmacology at the University of Dundee which he completed in 2004, under the supervision of Professors John Peters and Jeremy Lambert. He focused on biophysical properties of 5-HT3 and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Following post-doctoral research at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, he joined the Medway School of Pharmacy, Universities of Kent and Greenwich, where he has been actively teaching pharmacology and physiology to undergraduate pharmacy students on the GPhC accredited MPharm programme for the past 12 years. He led the creation of a new BSc (Hons) in Pharmacology and Physiology at the Medway School of Pharmacy, serving as Programme Leader before becoming the Director of Education for the School.  

Stephen is highly involved with the British Pharmacological Society where he was elected a Fellow in 2018. He is an active member of the Education and Skills Affinity Group for the Society and has participated with others in the Society in creating the Undergraduate Pharmacology Core Curriculum (https://www.bps.ac.uk/media-library-assets/library/undergraduate-pharmacology-core-curriculum).

Stephen said, “I am extremely excited to be returning to Dundee to teach on the highly successful BSc (Hons) Biological Sciences and Biomedical Sciences programmes and to be working with such a dynamic group of colleagues at the D’Arcy Thompson Unit.”

Story category Appointments