Dr. Nicholas P. Farrell is a graduate of University College Dublin. He obtained his PhD from Sussex University and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Simon Fraser University and The University of British Columbia. He is currently professor of Chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). His research interests are in the broad area of bioinorganic chemistry. Specifically his interest is in the medicinal uses of inorganic compounds and his work has included development of antiviral and antiparasitic drugs. His major research is on platinum-based anticancer agents, which are an important part of the anticancer drug armamentarium. The first genuinely structurally novel platinum drug to enter clinical trials in thirty years (BBR3464) arose from his laboratory research. He has received continuous funding for over twenty years from the American Cancer Society, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health for his research. Professor Farrell has written or co-edited three books in the area of platinum anticancer agents and medicinal inorganic chemistry. He is the author of over 200 refereed papers and review chapters. He and his collaborators have received over sixty patents world wide from his inventions. He was honored as Distinguished Research Scholar of Virginia Commonwealth University for 2003-2004. He was instrumental in development of a graduate program in Chemical Biology at VCU. He was the Chair of the first Gordon Research Conference on Metals in Medicine and in October 2003 chaired the Ninth International Symposium on Platinum Compounds in Cancer Chemotherapy, a meeting which unites chemists, biochemists, pharmacologists and cancer clinicians. Having begun his independent research career in Brazil, his laboratory has hosted and continues to host many international scholars and major collaborations have involved scientists from Australia, Brazil and The Czech Republic. Professor Farrell is fluent in Portuguese and speaks Spanish. He is interested in helping build scientific expertise and collaboration amongst developing countries.