Rick Schnellmann, PhD

Rick G. Schnellmann, PhD, is the Howard J Schaeffer in Pharmaceutical Sciences Endowed Chair at the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy. A leading pharmacologist, researcher and drug discovery entrepreneur, he joined the University of Arizona in August 2016 from the Medical University of South Carolina.

Schnellmann’s research is focused on identifying and developing drugs to treat acute kidney injury, diabetic kidney disease, stroke, spinal cord injury and Parkinson’s disease. His research has been funded continuously since 1987 and includes National Institutes of Health grant funding totaling more than $30 million. He has been instrumental in founding three biotechnology companies focused on drug discovery and development, including a drug for acute kidney injury, molecular compounds that could lead to new treatment for kidney failure and a compound being tested for treatment of retinitis pigmentosa. 

Schnellmann received a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from St. Louis College of Pharmacy and earned his doctorate in pharmacology and toxicology from the University of Arizona in 1984. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in renal toxicology at Duke University Medical Center.

Previously, Schnellmann worked at the South Carolina College of Pharmacy at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston, where he was an eminent scholar and distinguished university professor and was chair of the college's Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences from 2001 to 2015. He has a strong commitment to education and mentoring future researchers. He has taught pharmacology and toxicology to pharmacy, medical and veterinary students and has served on the Society of Toxicology Education Committee and the Subcommittee on Minority Education Initiatives.

Schnellmann was the editor of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics from 2004 to 2009. He also has served as associate editor of the American Journal of Physiology and Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology. He has published more than 180 peer-reviewed publications and reviews and authored more than 28 book chapters.