Study Geelong 2020 Career Mentoring Program
Meet Mentor, David Morton
The purpose of the Study Geelong Career Mentoring Program is to improve career readiness of the mentees through developing workplace related skills, understanding and confidence. It aims to provide an opportunity for mentors to further develop their leadership, planning, interpersonal and communication skills, and give back to the community.
David Morton is mentoring Ankush Dehlia, studying Master of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics at Deakin University, Waurn Ponds.
David is a passionate innovator who specializes in aerosols and powder-based R&D, as well as in university-industry R&D translation partnerships, which focus on skills development for our next generation of graduate leaders. David regards the source for the impact in his work is the unusual blend of experience from positions in industry, start-ups, regulation and research institutes.
With a PhD in chemistry from Bristol University, David started his professional career in the UK nuclear power safety industry, where he initially studied aerosol leakage behaviour in nuclear accidents, and combined this to reverse-engineered the knowledge into generating aerosol-based advanced materials and medicines.
In 1997, David then joined the University of Bath to manage their industry-funded inhaler development programs. In 1999, this group spun out into the drug delivery company Vectura Group plc, where as Head of Pulmonary Research, he was responsible for developing Vectura's inhalation technology platforms. These technologies are now used extensively across globally marketed medical inhalers. David was co-inventor of the Novartis Seebri and Ultibro BreezeHalers®, and made significant technical contributions to products including GSK Ellipta®, Chiesi Foster® NEXThaler , Atimos® and Clenil pMDI, the Sandoz AirFluSal® Forspiro®.
In 2007, David joined Monash University, with specific research interests in particle engineering for drug delivery. David is co-inventor of the Monash Oxytocin dry powder inhaler technology recognized with the Australian Innovation of the Year award. In 2010, he led the creation of the Centre of Industrialization & Innovation (The CoI2) partnership with GSK in advanced manufacturing, with its impact recognised by the B-HERT Outstanding Collaboration in Australia and Best Australian R&D Collaboration. In 2016, David guided the evolution of the CoI2 into the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (MMIC).
David joined Deakin University in 2018, to focus on reimagining work integrated learning programs as a foundation for skills enhancement, industry engagement and sustainable partnerships in engineering and technology translation. He has continued his particle engineering and aerosol research across a range of applications including additive manufacturing.
David has authored over 35 patent applications and over 100 peer-reviewed academic publications, with around 4000 citations.
We wish David and Ankush much success as they work towards achieving Ankush's program goals of building leadership qualities and, teamwork and innovation skills, so that he can contribute more towards the betterment of society.