Geoffrey Vaughan, FTSE, FRACI, MSc (Sydney) 1956
Geoffrey Vaughan majored in Organic Chemistry at the University of Sydney and was supervised for his Master’s degree by Dr John Cymmerman Craig in a project involving the synthesis of isosteres of sulphanilamide and related sulpha drugs. During his master’s he also carried out some analytical work on anti-tuberculous drugs in a project Dr Craig was involved in with the Department of Microbiology at the University of Melbourne. From this latter work he was invited to proceed to a PhD in microbiology at the University of Melbourne in a project entitled “The Chemotherapy of Tuberculosis”. His studies involved organic synthesis and analytical chemistry; however his PhD is listed as studying under the Department of Microbiology. Thus he can label himself as a microbiologist even though he rarely looked down a microscope and never carried out a Gram stain! However chemistry remained, and still remains his prime interest.
His first job after graduation in 1961 was Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Victorian College of Pharmacy. The College was a unique institution as it was a privately owned and operated by the Pharmaceutical Society of Victoria. During this period it was the smallest tertiary institution in Australia. In time Geoff Vaughan was promoted to Senior Lecturer, Head of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Deputy-Dean of the College and in 1979 Dean of the College.
Geoffrey Vaughan did much to introduce research at the College which had essentially been a teaching-only institution until he arrived. His research studies covered natural product chemistry, drug analysis, and structure-activity relationships.
Geoff Vaughan was involved with the growth of the College when it ultimately received government funding and became a College of Advanced Education (CAE). It was the first non-university institution in Australia to award an undergraduate degree, the Bachelor of Pharmacy, and the first non-university institution to award a higher degree by research, the Master of Pharmacy. In time Degrees were to become common place throughout the CAE system and this was a key factor in the merger and amalgamation of CAEs and universities across Australia in 1990.
A career change came in 1986 when Dr Vaughan was invited to take up the appointment as Director of Chisholm Institute of Technology, a large multi-disciplinary and multi-campus CAE in Victoria. When Chisholm merged with Monash University, to become Australia’s largest university, he was appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and the Vice-Chancellor’s nominee on the Faculty of Medicine.
Another career change came in 1992 when Professor Vaughan was invited to take up the position of the National Manager of the Therapeutic Goods Administration within the Department of Health, Canberra. The position was created to implement the 164 recommendations of the Baume Report which had been accepted by Government and involved dramatic changes in the regulation and registration of drugs, therapeutic products and medical devices used in Australia.
Semi-retirement commenced in 1996 with Geoffrey undertaking some consultancies in the area of drug regulation, joining the board of several pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and being invited to join a number of federal government advisory committees. He has served nine years as the Chair of the Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Committee, he is a member of the Industry Research and Development (IR&D) Board and is a Councillor at Questacon, the National Science and Technology Centre. He has also recently served as the Chair of the Medical Devices Industry Action Agenda, an advisory group set up by the Minister for Industry to identify any impediments in areas such as industry policy and regulation that effect the medical devices and related industries.