Rate My Professor Ian Tucker

Emeritus Professor Ian Tucker, BPharm(Hons) PhD(Qld) MPS, is Emeritus Professor at the University of Otago School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Professional Programmes. He completed his degrees at the University of Queensland. Following a 1982 postdoctoral fellowship in Scotland with Professor Sandy Florence and postdoctoral work with Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation on biological wool defleecing, he joined Otago in 1991 as Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He was Dean of the School of Pharmacy from 1999 to 2010—the longest serving—and later Associate Dean (Research Commercialisation), Division of Health Sciences. He retired after 30 years, receiving Emeritus title in 2021.

Professor Tucker's research centers on formulation and delivery of bioactives for human and veterinary medicine, including sustained release polymer matrix tablets (polymer coalescence, drug/excipient/polymer properties for stability and predictability), nanosystems (bilosomes, cell-penetrating peptide polymeric nanoparticles), and oil-based intramuscular systems. He examines absorption across barriers like blood-brain and blood-milk (dairy mastitis), transporter roles, bile salt permeation effects. Techniques: release/kinetics, thermal/particle sizing/electron microscopy, HPLC/LCMS/radiotracer, factorial/statistical modeling, cell/in vivo studies. Impacts include Bomac/Bayer collaborations yielding sheep vitamin B12 implants for cobalt deficiency and chlorhexidine teat sealants for mastitis. He supervised PhDs, holds patents (e.g., controlled release compositions 2017, injectable antibiotics 2014). Key publications: Yang et al. (2009) 'Physicochemical and biological characterization of monoketocholic acid...', Molecular Pharmaceutics; Yang et al. (2011) 'Effect of bile salts on the transport of morphine-6-glucuronide...', Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences; Pirayavaraporn et al. (2012) 'Determination of moisture content... Eudragit RLPO', International Journal of Pharmaceutics; Petrovski et al. (2011) 'Efficacy of a novel... teat sealant...', Journal of Dairy Science; Yang et al. (2013) 'Effect of 12-oxochenodeoxycholate...', Journal of Pharmacy & Pharmacology. He was President, International Controlled Release Society, earning its distinguished service award; a 2023 special issue of International Journal of Pharmaceutics honors him.