Associate Professor Phurpa Wangchuk

A/Prof. Phurpa is currently a lecturer and a research team leader at the College of Science and Engineering (CSE), James Cook University (JCU). He founded a research program called ‘Nature-inspired Therapeutics from Wet Tropics’ and leads a Research Group comprising 3 postdocs (1 immunologist, two chemists), 2 Research Assistants and 13 research students, which focuses on finding a cure for inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes and cancer.

 Dr. Phurpa completed his PhD with ‘Outstanding Thesis’ from the University of Wollongong (UOW) under the highly competitive and prestigious Australian Endeavour Award. Right after completing his PhD, he was awarded a highly competitive and prestigious Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Emerging Leadership Fellowship in 2014, and two successive NMHRC Ideas grants (as Principal Chief Investigator) worth AUD 3 million (2020-2024 and 2024-2028) for innovative research projects.

 He has achieved 142 publications, including journal articles, book chapters, medicinal plant monographs and books with 2.77 times citations more than the global average, placing him in the top 0.5% of all scholars worldwide (as per ScholarGPS) and ranked number 1 (within 0.002%) in medicinal plants research at JCU. He chaired many sessions and gave keynote talks at international conferences. He serves in many international journals as an editor (in 6 journals), a paper and book reviewer (in 27 journals), and on a grant review panel (NHMRC).