Rima Al-awar's Biography

Rima Al-awar, Director, Ontario Institute For Cancer Research

Dr. Al-awar earned a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from North Carolina State University working on Lycopodium Alkaloids and did a post-doctoral fellowship focused on natural products synthesis at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill prior to joining Eli Lilly and Company in 1995. While at Lilly, she was an active medicinal chemist in the oncology area working in multidisciplinary teams on the antimicrotubule agent Cryptophycin and later on several kinase focused efforts. In 2002, while at Lilly, Dr. Al-awar took on administrative responsibilities as Head in Discovery Chemistry Research and Technologies and later as Head, Route Selection, in Chemical Product Research and Development prior to joining the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research as Director of the Drug Discovery Program in July 2008.