Associate Professor Ian Heslop

Dr Ian Heslop originally qualified as a pharmacist in the UK, where he worked in a number of English and Scottish hospitals. He gained a wealth of experience in Drug Information and Clinical Pharmacy and clinical experience in mental health, infectious diseases, cardiovascular and renal medicine and gerontology. He migrated to Queensland in 1996 and initially continued as a clinical pharmacist becoming the Deputy Director – Pharmacy, Clinical Services at the Townsville Hospital.

In this position, he was involved in the development of the pharmacy program at James Cook University (JCU) and switched to full-time academic pharmacy in 2003. Whilst at JCU, he had two periods at the Head of Pharmacy and was involved (at various levels) in most of the major developments within the JCU Pharmacy program. He also instigated and developed a Masters level program in Pharmaceutical Public Health.

He also completed a doctorate in the area of Travel Health and his research interests continue to include Travel Health, Infectious Diseases, Antimicrobial Stewardship, Pharmaceutical Public Health, Pharmacovigilance and the development and evaluation of expanded pharmacist roles in multidisciplinary settings. He has taught on a wide variety of topics to both undergraduate and postgraduate pharmacy and health professional students.

In 2020, he returned to the UK for 3 years to take up the position of Deputy Head/Director of Pharmacy Education at The University of Lincoln and, whilst in post between October 2022 and July 2023 was the Acting Head of School. Whilst at Lincoln, the School of Pharmacy had a number of significant achievements including being ranked second overall then first overall for Pharmacy and Pharmacology in the Guardian Good University Guide for 2023 and 2024 respectively which was to the credit of all of the staff within the School of Pharmacy.

In 2023, he returned to Australia to take up his current position as Associate Professor – Pharmacy at the University of Newcastle, where he will continue his teaching and research interests.