Dr Jaroslav Boublik

Job Title: Self-employed consultant

Year Graduated & Degree: B.Sc. (Hons) 1981, Ph.D. in Medicine 1985

When I arrived at Monash I did Life Science 101 and became interested in the biological aspects of chemistry. In my Honours year my project work was in bio-inorganic chemistry. I was accepted to do a Ph.D. through the Dept of Medicine at the Prince Henry's Hospital Medical Research Centre (now Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research) working on receptor biology and biochemistry. I decided to go back into synthetic chemistry as a peptide chemist and did a post doc work in Shanghai and at the Salk Institute in San Diego . While in China I became interested in the phytochemistry of herbal medicine and have studied that on the side ever since. I returned to Australia and started the Peptide Chemistry lab at the Baker Medical Research Institute which I ran until 1994 at which point I left to start my own company offering R&D services to the complementary medical industry.

I am currently director of two companies in the Complementary Medicine industry and act as a consultant to several others. I constantly draw on research techniques that I developed during my studies.

My typical day now consists of 20% administration, 40% research (mostly information technology based rather than lab) and 40% project management. I travel interstate most weeks at least once and internationally several times each year. I work from a home office and enjoy a great lifestyle.

Over the past few years I have become increasingly involved in providing nutritional advice to elite athletes. This is because my partner is an elite athlete having represented Australia at the Manchester Commonwealth Games.

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