ProfessorAlan Boobis, OBE

Alan Boobis received a Bachelor's degree in pharmacology (BSc) in 1971 from the University of Glasgow (UK). In 1974 he received a PhD degree in pharmacology from the University of Glasgow (UK), working in the area of drug metabolism. His doctoral work involved studies of the influence of changes in hemodynamics in the liver on drug disposition and the effects of lipid peroxidation on P450 integrity. Professor Boobis then worked as a Fogarty Visiting Fellow for two years with Dr Dan Nebert at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD). During this time he studied the effects of modulating factors on benzo[a]pyrene DNA adduction, and was also involved in an investigation of genetic and developmental factors on P450 expression and activity. In 1976 he joined the department of Clinical Pharmacology at what was then the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (London, UK), as an MRC research training fellow. He was then appointed to a tenured lectureship and subsequently promoted to Professor of Biochemical Pharmacology (at what is now Imperial College London). He retired from the College in 2017, and was conferred his current title of Emeritus Professor of Toxicology. He was also Deputy Director, then Director, of the Toxicology Unit (funded by PHE & DH) in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London from 1998-2017. His current research interests include mechanistic toxicology, drug metabolism, mode of action, and the application of this knowledge in chemical risk assessment. He has published over 260 original research papers and is former Editor-in-Chief, now emeritus editor, of Food and Chemical Toxicology. He is past member of a number of national and international grant review and advisory committees. Previously, he was deputy chair of the UK Advisory Committee on Pesticides (ACP) (1999-2002) and is a former member of the UK Committees on Carcinogenicity (COC) and on Toxicity (COT) (deputy chair), the HPA Board Sub-Committee for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP), the EFSA Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues (PPR) (vice-chair) and the EFSA Panel on Contaminants in Food and Feed (CONTAM). He has served on several working groups of the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) and as convenor (chair) of the International Standards Organisation (ISO) TC 126 Working Group 10 (on machine smoking for testing cigarettes), nominated by the UK Department of Health. He is currently chair of the Committee on Toxicity (COT), and a member/chair of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (residues of veterinary drugs) (JECFA - vet), and the Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR). He is a former chair of the Board of Trustees of the International Life Science Institute (ILSI) and of the ILSI Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI). He is a former vice-president and currently a member of the Board of Directors of ILSI Europe. He is involved in several ILSI Europe expert groups in the field of food safety. He received an OBE for his work on the risk assessment of pesticides in 2003. He is an Honorary Member of EUROTOX, recipient of the EUROTOX Merit Award, the British Toxicology Society John Barnes Prize Lecture, the Royal Society of Chemistry Toxicology Award, the US Society of Toxicology Arnold J Lehman Award and the Toxicology Forum Philippe Shubik Distinguished Scientist Award. He is also a Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society (FBPhS) and an Honorary Fellow of the British Toxicology Society (FBTS).