Biography

David E. Nichols, Ph.D., is currently an Adjunct Professor of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Previously he held the Robert C. and Charlotte P. Anderson Distinguished Chair in Pharmacology and in addition, was a Distinguished Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at the Purdue University College of Pharmacy, where he taught both professional undergraduate as well as graduate classes. He also was an Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Indiana University School of Medicine and taught in the medical curriculum. He received his B.S. in chemistry from the University of Cincinnati in 1969, and a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the University of Iowa in 1973, following which he did postdoctoral work in pharmacology at the University of Iowa, College of Medicine. He joined Purdue University in 1974 where he remained until his retirement in June 2012. He has published more than 300 scientific articles, book chapters, and monographs. In 1993 he founded the Heffter Research Institute, which has supported and funded clinical research with psilocybin and led the so-called “renaissance in psychedelic research.”