Associate Professor Natalie Medlicott
Pharmacy
Associate Professor Natalie Medlicott's Pharmacy research involves colleagues in New Zealand, Australia, Denmark and Northern Ireland — and distance is not an issue.
“It may seem we are a long way away from anywhere else but we are very well connected with the rest of the world. Otago's research is world class and highly regarded.”
“Research has become more and more important to universities over the years, and Otago has responded to that well with a lot more opportunities for students to get involved.”
Natalie saw the possibilities in Pharmacy when she came to Otago to study.
“I liked science at high school and was interested in how chemicals interacted with the body, so Pharmacy seemed like an obvious choice.
“It's a health profession that has science as its base – and I felt confident about getting a job at the end of it.
“Even so, when I started I didn't realise just how much scope there was. It's much wider than I thought — something prospective students may not be aware of.”
A graduation reunion after 21 years emphasised that scope. “Everyone from our year was contacted and most attended and the highlight was finding out just how many different roles people had gone on to fill.”
After Natalie completed her BPharm she worked as a clinical tutor at Dunedin hospital and the University while she gained her PhD, and then spent time in the US doing post-doctoral work investigating the formulation of new anti-cancer drugs.
She returned to Otago to combine her academic career with raising a family.
Now head of Clinical Pharmacy, her international research focus is on drug delivery, investigating how chemicals are converted into medicine and how medicines behave in the body — wherever you are in the world.