Richard Furneaux
Distinguished Scientist at the Ferrier Research Institute of Victoria University of Wellington
Professor Richard Furneaux is a Distinguished Scientist at the Ferrier Research Institute of Victoria University of Wellington. On 1st February 2023, after 38-years in a leadership role, he stepped down as Institute Director, to pursue research and business engagement activities on a full-time basis.
The Ferrier is New Zealand’s leading Applied Organic Chemistry and Synthetic Biology R&D capability, with more than 50 science staff and 20 PhD students, bringing better drugs, materials and technology to the world.
Richard has a particular expertise in carbohydrate chemistry, and in the chemical composition and uses of seaweeds. He has co-authored 201 peer-reviewed journal articles, including 4 recent ones on bile acid chemistry.
He has been named as an inventor on 22 international patent families, many licenced for commercialisation, with Mundesine® approved in Japan for treatment of a T cell lymphoma and other products in the market.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi and the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry, was awarded the Hector Medal in 2006, the Thomson Award in 2012, and Wellingtonian of the Year in Science & Technology in 2013 and won both the KiwiNet Supreme and Research Entrepreneur Awards in 2017.
He serves on the Canadian Glycomics Network Research Management Committee and was a Director on the Boards of two start-up biotech companies.