Dr. Namandjé Bumpus, Ph.D. - Chief Scientist - U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Dr. Namandjé Bumpus, Ph.D. is U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Chief Scientist ( https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-organization/namandje-bumpus ).

The Office of the Chief Scientist supports the research foundation, science, and innovation that underpins the FDA’s regulatory mission. It does this through a broad framework that encompasses scientific collaborations, laboratory safety, the transfer of FDA inventions to the private sector, scientific integrity in FDA policy- and decision-making, the professional development of regulatory scientists, and its core research component—the FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research—which generates the vital data that the FDA requires for its regulatory decision-making and development of sound regulatory policy.

Before joining the FDA, Dr. Bumpus was the E.K. Marshall and Thomas H. Maren Professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She served previously as associate dean for basic research in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Bumpus’ research has focused on drug metabolism, pharmacogenetics, bioanalytical chemistry, and infectious disease pharmacology.

Dr. Bumpus joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins in 2010 as an assistant professor. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology at Occidental College in 2003, a doctorate in pharmacology at the University of Michigan in 2007 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular and experimental medicine at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA in 2010.

Dr. Bumpus currently serves as president-elect of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. She previously served as chair of the NIH Xenobiotic and Nutrient Disposition and Action study section.

Her many honors include the Leon I. Goldberg Award from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, the James Gillette Award from the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics, the John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, which is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on early career scientists and engineers. Dr. Bumpus is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She became a Member of the National Academy of Medicine, Class of 2022, one of the highest honors in the fields of health, science and medicine.