Associate Professor Phurpa Wangchuk is a lecturer at the Collge of Science and Engineering and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AITHM) and a Medical/Biomedicine Lecturer at the College of Public Health, Medical, and Veterinary Sciences (CPHMVS). He is a medicinal chemist and a group leader currently leading a research team to find treatments for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and related diseases.  His major research interests lie in investigations of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Phytochemistry, Ethnopharmacology, Medicinal plants, and Drug discoveries. Before his appointment at JCU, he worked for 12 years in Bhutan as a Research Officer, Chemist, Product Manager, and Head of the Research and Development Section of the Manjong Sorig Pharmaceuticals.