Title: Senior Director of Process Chemistry
Company: Eli Lilly and Company
Location: Greenwood, Indiana, United States
Daniel P. Walker, PhD, senior director of process chemistry at Eli Lilly and Company, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Scientists for dedication, achievements, and leadership in pharmaceutical development.
With nearly three decades of experience, Dr. Walker has established a distinguished career in medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical development. He currently excels as the senior director of synthetic molecule design and development at Eli Lilly and Company, a role he has held since 2023. In this position, he designs commercially viable manufacturing processes for new medicines, addressing unmet medical needs. He has also served as an adjunct assistant professor of chemistry at Western Michigan University since 2012, and his previous experience includes serving as senior principal scientist in process chemistry at Zoetis from 2019 to 2022. His earlier roles include science fellow and senior research chemist at Monsanto, now Bayer AG, senior scientist at Kalexsyn, now Dipharma Inc., and senior principal scientist at Pfizer.
Dr. Walker laid a strong academic foundation, earning a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Michigan Technological University in 1991 and a PhD in organic chemistry from Indiana University Bloomington in 2000. His research contributions span over two decades, resulting in 33 U.S. patents and numerous publications in high-impact journals, including Tetrahedron Letters, Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters, and the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.
One of Dr. Walker’s most notable achievements was discovering a new medicine for cognitive deficits in schizophrenia, which advanced to human clinical trials, a rare milestone for a medicinal chemist early in their career. Additionally, he has contributed to teams delivering three other drugs to clinical testing and led efforts at Eli Lilly to advance a program into phase 3 clinical trials, an accomplishment achieved by fewer than one in 1,000 compounds. In light of his impressive undertakings, he was recognized with the Technology Above and Beyond Award and induction into Monsanto’s Science Fellows Program. He attributes his success to a high school teacher who nurtured his passion for chemistry and provided hands-on laboratory experience that shaped his career. Looking to the future, he aspires to be part of a project that successfully delivers new medicine to patients, improving lives through groundbreaking innovation.
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