Sponsored by the UGA College of Pharmacy, the 2025 Chu Lectureship will welcome Craig W. Lindsley, Ph.D., considered one of the top—if not the top—medicinal chemists in the world.  Lindsley is the founder and current Executive Director of the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery (WCNDD), a clinical stage biotech at Vanderbilt University, where he has raised more than $390 million in licensing and research support from the NIH, foundations, and companies during the past 18 years.  In addition, he serves as the University Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology, Chemistry & Biochemistry and holds the William K. Warren Jr. Chair in Medicine at Vanderbilt.

Lindsley has pioneered the concept of GPCR allosteric modulation, developing key proof of concept compounds and clinical candidates. Several of his drug discoveries are in clinical trials, including one for schizophrenia, in development with Boehringer-Ingelheim, and another for neuropathic pain with Ono Pharmaceuticals. Lindsley holds over 130 issued US patents and has published more than 615 manuscripts and another 225 published patent applications.

Along with his research and scholarship, Lindsley is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, which is the top journal in the field of Medicinal Chemistry. In addition, he was the founding Editor-in-Chief of ACS Chemical Neuroscience (2009-2020). He has been the recipient of major awards from the American Chemical Society and the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, including induction into the ACS MEDI Hall of Fame, and he has been named a Fellow of the American Society of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, the Royal Society for Chemistry, the National Academy of Inventors, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The College of Pharmacy’s Chu Lectureship recognizes the outstanding accomplishments of Distinguished Research Professor and Professor Emeritus Dr. David Chu, who has spent his entire career researching new drugs for the treatment of viral infections and cancer. For more than a decade, the Lectureship has welcomed renowned scientists, medicinal chemists, and drug discoverers from across the world.