Robert Gray Robin Shanks

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(born 4 April 1934) is a British retired clinical pharmacologist, specialising in Beta adrenergic blocking drugs. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (

) in the

1997 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1997 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countrie ...

, For Services to Medicine. Shanks was the first person to give a beta blocking drug (DCI, dichloroisoprenaline) to a person in 1961/62 to study its effects on cardiovascular responses to catecholamines and stress. Jointly with

Sir James Black Sir James Whyte Black (14 June 1924 – 22 March 2010) was a Scottish physician and pharmacologist. Together with Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings, he shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1988 for pioneering strategies for rational ...

(Nobel Prize winner in 1988) he discovered the beta-blocking drug, propranolol, in 1962. In 1964 he classified beta adrenergic receptors in beta one and beta two and as a result developed the first drug ( practoLol) to selectively block beta one receptors. Subsequently he spent 30 years studying the properties and clinical pharmacology and clinical use of beta blocking and other cardiovascular drugs. He published many research articles on beta blockers during his tenure at Queens University Belfast. He was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy ( MRIA) in 1986 He was Pro-Vice-Chancellor from 1991 to 1997 and acting

Vice-Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth of Nati ...

in 1998 of

Queens University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

. Since his retirement in 1998 he has been Emeritus Whitla Professor of Therapeutics and Pharmacology,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shanks, Robert 1934 births Living people Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Clinical pharmacologists British pharmacologists Members of the Royal Irish Academy Vice-chancellors of Queen's University Belfast Scientists from Belfast Biochemists from Northern Ireland