Lhasa, an educational charity, which creates state-of-the-art in silico prediction and database systems for use in metabolism, toxicology and related sciences, has promoted Dr Richard Williams to the position of Chief Scientific Officer (CSO).
Dr Williams succeeds Dr Chris Barber, who took over the role of CEO in June.
He previously held the role of Senior Principal Scientist in the science team, taking a strategic lead in the development of in silico solutions for assessing chemical safety, including Derek Nexus, the expert, knowledge-based software that provides users with accurate toxicity predictions.
Prior to joining Lhasa in 2004, Dr Williams obtained a BSc and later a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Wales, Swansea. He also completed postdoctoral research at the MRC Centre for Synaptic Plasticity at Bristol University.
In his new role, Dr Williams will lead Lhasa’s talented team of scientists in the development and continued improvement of state of the art in silico prediction and database systems for use in metabolism, toxicology and related sciences.
Speaking about his appointment as CSO, Dr Williams, said: “I have spent 13 years as a Lhasa scientist and I am both excited and honoured to now become Lhasa’s new Chief Scientific Officer. It is an exciting time for our industry and there are significant opportunities to deliver world-class scientific research and software.”
Founded in 1983 as a not-for-profit organisation and educational charity to promote the use of computer-aided reasoning in scientific software for the life science industries, Lhasa was initially based within the Chemistry department at the University of Leeds and employed only a handful of scientists.
Today Lhasa is a truly global organisation employing more than 150 people, with the majority based at its Yorkshire head office at Granary Wharf in Leeds city centre, as well as at offices in Newcastle, Poland and the US.
