Professor William N. Charman is Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University and Director, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Melbourne, Australia.

He received his BPharm from the Victorian College of Pharmacy in 1981 and his PhD in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of Kansas in 1985. From 1986-1989 he was a senior research scientist at the Sterling-Winthrop Research Institute in Rennselear, New York. He returned to Australia in 1989 where his research interests include absorption and bioavailability of poorly water soluble drugs, lymphatic drug transport, lead candidate optimisation, and the discovery and development of drugs for neglected diseases.

He received the GlaxoWellcome International Achievement award in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 1999, the Australasian Pharmaceutical Sciences Association Medal in 2005, the Controlled Release Society International Career Achievement in Oral Drug Delivery Award in 2006, and a FIP Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress Research Achievement Award in 2007. He was a team member of the Drug Discovery Project of the Year selected by the Medicines for Malaria Venture in 2002, 2007 and 2008. He has published over 370 scientific papers and communications and is a member of four international Editorial Boards. He is a fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, a previous member of two Corporate Boards, Member of the Expert Scientific Advisory Committee for the Medicines for Malaria Venture (Geneva, Switzerland) and Chairman, Seeding Drug Discovery Funding Committee of the Wellcome Trust (London, UK).