Dr Richard B Silverman is the John Evans Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University and also holds an appointment in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology. Dr Silverman is a member of the Center for Molecular Innovation and Drug Discovery, the Northwestern University Institute for Neuroscience, the Interdepartmental Biological Sciences Program, the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, and the Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center.
In 2008 Dr Silverman was the recipient of a Distinguished Alumni Award from The Pennsylvania State University. In 2003 he received an Arthur C Cope Senior Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society for innovative research related to the mechanism and inactivation of enzymes. Other awards that Dr Silverman has received for creative research include selection as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1990 and a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemists in 1985; he also received a National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Award in 1982, an Alfred P Sloan Research Fellowship in 1981, and a DuPont Young Faculty Fellowship in 1976. Dr Silverman is the author of over 250 research articles, has written three books (one in its second edition), and holds 41 domestic and foreign patents.
Dr Silverman also is the recipient of several teaching awards from Northwestern University, including the E. LeRoy Hall Award for Teaching Excellence and the Excellence in Chemistry Education Award from the Northwestern University Chapter of Alpha Chi Sigma Chemistry Fraternity in 1999, the Northwestern University Alumni Teaching Award in 2000, and held the Charles Deering McCormick Chair in Teaching Excellence in 2001.
In 2005 LyricaTM (pregabalin), a drug that Dr Silverman invented, went on the market for the treatment of epilepsy, neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, and, in Europe, for generalised anxiety disorder. LyricaTM was the first approved treatment for fibromyalgia and post-herpetic neuralgia (pain associated with shingles).
Dr Silverman received his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from The Pennsylvania State University in 1968. He started his graduate studies in organic chemistry at Harvard University in 1968, but was drafted into the US Army. After receiving a US Army Commendation Medal for meritorious service in 1971, he returned to Harvard University and completed his masters and doctoral degrees in 1972 and 1974, respectively. Following two years of postdoctoral research in the study of enzyme inactivation in the Graduate Department of Biochemistry at Brandeis University, Dr Silverman began his independent career at Northwestern University.
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