Professor Rebecca Ritchie named 2024 ASCEPT Fellow
Professor Rebecca Ritchie.
2 December 2024
Internationally acclaimed cardiac pharmacologist, Professor Rebecca Ritchie, has been named as a 2024 Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists (ASCEPT) Fellow - the highest honour the Society bestows upon its members.
Professor Ritchie, who leads Drug Discovery Biology and Heart Failure Pharmacology at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS), is the second Monash University ASCEPT Fellow recipient since the fellowship program began.
ASCEPT fellowships are awarded to outstanding members in recognition of longstanding contributions to research in their field, the wider pharmacology community and the Society.
To become an ASCEPT Fellow, recipients must first be nominated for the position and be recommended by a majority of the Fellow membership committee.
“It’s an honour to be awarded this fellowship and to be recognised by and among my peers, of whom I greatly admire,” Professor Ritchie said.
“Previous ASCEPT Fellows, including my former Monash colleague Emeritus Professor Roger Summers, have all made significant contributions to the field of pharmacology in an effort to develop new drugs and tackle a broad range of diseases.
“I’m grateful to ASCEPT for this honour and for their ongoing dedication to advancing excellence in clinical and experimental pharmacology and toxicology in Australasia.”
Professor Ritchie is internationally-recognised for her translational research focused on arresting the progression of heart failure. Her career spans discovery, preclinical & clinical research, enabled by long-term collaborations across Monash, the Victorian Heart Institute & the Baker Heart & Diabetes Institute.
Professor Ritchie’s vast research achievements include 154 publications in leading international journals (>9050 citations, H index 51, GS) and continuous peer-reviewed funding since 1999, comprising support from NHMRC, MRFF, Diabetes Australia and the Heart Foundation, in addition to industry collaborations including CSL.
She has made major contributions to cardiac pharmacology and to professional scientific organisations, and has been previously recognised by ASCEPT, along with the International Society of Heart Research; American Heart Association; Hypertension Australia; Diabetes Australia; Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand; and the British Pharmacology Society.
A long-term member of ASCEPT since an Honours student in 1989, Professor Ritchie has been an active participant of the Society and its annual scientific meetings. Her roles within the Society date back to 2000 and have included a wide range of positions encompassing committee roles and representing the Society in different countries, through to mentoring upcoming members.
Director of MIPS, Professor Chris Porter, said this recognition represents decades of work that has been pivotal in deepening our understanding of cardiac pharmacology.
“Rebecca is a true leader in her field and, on behalf of MIPS and the wider Monash community I extend a warm congratulations for this well-deserved recognition,” Professor Porter said.
“Heart failure is a major cause of death worldwide, for which there is no cure. Rebecca and her team have paved the way for a number of new treatments for heart failure through both the Drug Discovery Biology theme and the Heart Failure Pharmacology group at MIPS.
“Rebecca is a dedicated mentor who goes above and beyond to support individual researchers and the broader pharmacology community and her elevation to Fellowship of ASCEPT is very well deserved.”
ENDS