John A. Secrist III, Ph.D.

President and CEO

Dr. Secrist was named President and CEO of Southern Research Institute in September 2006. For the previous five years, he was Vice President of Southern Research's Drug Discovery Division. From 1990-2000, he served in various other roles including Vice President of Drug Development, Vice President and Scientific Director for Life Sciences, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and Vice President of Organic Chemistry. After joining Southern Research in 1979, Dr. Secrist worked for renowned scientist, John Montgomery, for eleven years as Senior Chemist, Head of the Bio-Organic Section, Associate Research Director for Organic Chemistry, and Research Director of the Organic Chemistry Department.

Prior to joining Southern Research, Dr. Secrist was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Ohio State University for six years where he was a student mentor and received the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award in 1977. Dr. Secrist has extensive, hands-on experience with drug discovery and development research, focusing mainly on the development of new anticancer, antiviral and antibacterial agents. He is a co-inventor (with John Montgomery) of the childhood leukemia drug, Clofarabine, which received FDA approval late in 2004.

While at Southern Research, Dr. Secrist has served on numerous public and private advisory boards and professional committees, chairing one of the NIH/AIDS and Related Research Study Sections, as well as a number of Department of Defense breast and prostate cancer panels. He has served on the scientific advisory boards of Tehnagen, Inc, PNP Therapeutics and ViraChem, Inc. and as a consultant for BioCryst Pharmaceutical Co., Anadys, Ethyl Corp., and others. He, together with four other scientists from around the world, founded the International Society for Nucleosides, Nucleotides and Nucleic Acids, and he has served as President-Elect, President and Past President (currently) while simultaneously serving as Executive Editor of Nucleosides & Nucleotides. In addition, he has been Treasurer, President-Elect and President (currently) of the International Society for Antiviral Research and is on the editorial boards of Antiviral Research and Antiviral Chemistry and Chemotherapy.

Dr. Secrist is an Adjunct Scientist with The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Comprehensive Cancer Center and UAB Center for AIDS Research, as well as an Adjunct Professor in the UAB Department of Chemistry. He has authored more than 140 publications and 7 book chapters and holds more than 25 U.S. or World patents. Dr. Secrist earned a Bachelor's degree in chemistry from The University of Michigan and holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from The University of Illinois.

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