B. Frank Gupton PhD

Dr. Frank Gupton is a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and holds joint appointments in the Departments of Chemistry and the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering. He also serves as Department Chair of the Chemical and Life Science Engineering Department and is the Director of the Institute for Engineering and Medicine at VCU. Dr. Gupton received his Bachelor’s of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Richmond and graduate degrees in organic chemistry from Georgia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth University. His thirty year industrial career has centered on the development and commercialization of chemical processes for pharmaceutical and agricultural applications. As Executive Director of Chemical Process Development at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals he led the development and commercialization of the chemical process for the production of Nevirapine, a widely prescribed anti-viral medication for the treatment of AIDS. Dr. Gupton’s research group is focused on the development and application of new technologies that will streamline organic synthesis through process intensification. The goal of process intensification is to increase the overall efficiency and selectivity of chemical reactions by using novel chemistry and/ or running reactions under more extreme process conditions (temperature and pressure). The group is interested in applying these principals towards the development of new catalyst systems that can be used in concert with continuous chemical processing technology to streamline the synthesis of pharmaceutical active ingredients.