Aston mourns pharmacy school pioneer Mike Brown
4 Dec 2023
Aston University Pharmacy School has announced the recent death of Professor Mike Brown, who was instrumental in building the reputation of the department.
In a statement the university said: “He appointed a young international faculty and, for those who worked with him, he created a uniquely vibrant academic environment which excelled in both research and teaching.”
Today Aston remains the only pharmacy school to boast a Regius Chair in the subject, having been awarded the honour to mark the late Queen Elizabeth ll’s 90th birthday in 2016. It is also credited with developing the $2 billion brain tumour treatment drug Temozolomide.
Brown who died last month at the age of 92 is credited with building the school’s reputation during his tenure as head of department in the 1970s and 1980s, winning an ‘outstanding’ rating in 1986 from the then Research Assessment Exercise.
The microbiologist also served as dean and Pro Vice Chancellor, publishing 200 papers until he retired in 1997. Afterwards he worked with a number of other UK universities as well as Stanford University in the USA where he worked with Nobel laureate Arthur Kornberg.
Brown’s interests stretched beyond science alone – a published poet and philosopher whose book Human Survival? was released in 2018. He also helped to create the University’s Martin Luther King Centre “to cater for all faiths, and none, in the pursuit of justice and peace through reasoned dialogue” said the university.
