Faculty Profiles

Dr. James K. Porter

Dr. James K. Porter received his B.S. degree with a major in Chemistry from the University of Georgia and his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy, with a split major in Medicinal and Synthetic Organic Chemistry and a split minor in Pharmacology and Biochemistry.

Upon graduation, he served as a research scientist aboard the U.S. naval ship Eltanin with the U.S. Antarctic Research Program, Department of Interpolar Studies, in the Southern Ocean of the Antarctic region. Dr. Porter was a Medicinal Organic Chemist in the Toxicology and Mycotoxin Research Unit at the Richard B. Russell Research Center in Athens, GA. Concurrently Dr. Porter held an adjunct appointment with the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology at the UGA College of Pharmacy.

Dr. Porter has directed research programs focused on the isolation and identification of natural toxins associated with human and animal health problems, developing chemical methods of toxin analysis for food safety, and studying mechanisms of toxicities related to neurochemical disruption of dopamine, serotonin, and melatonin biosynthesis.

He has presented invitational plenary research papers at national and international symposia in pharmacology, toxicology, natural product chemistry, and biochemistry forums. In addition, Dr. Porter is a member of numerous pharmaceutical organizations, has been a reviewer for various scientific journals, and an author and co-author of several book chapters and novel research manuscripts.

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