Johann Wiechers Dies

Johann Wiechers died Nov. 5 in an hospital in Kuala Lumpu, after being struck by a deadly form of pneumonia. Despite heroic attempts from the medical staff in the hospital to save his life, he died, surrounded by his family, just six days after falling ill.

A pharmacist by training, Wiechers finished his Ph.D. in 1989 at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, on the subject of skin penetration enhancement. Following six years at Unilever Research in the UK, he joined Uniqema in Gouda, The Netherlands, in 1995 where he had global responsibility for the company’s skin R&D as its skin R&D director. In April 2007, he was appointed visiting professor at the University of London, School of Pharmacy, Brunswick Square, London. In July 2007, Wiechers started his own company JW Solutions as an independent consultant for cosmetic science.

His main interests were cosmetic claim substantiation, non-invasive skin bioengineering, skin sensory techniques, clinical trial design, skin penetration and biostatistics.

He was a member of the Praesidium of the IFSCC from 1998 to 2009, serving in many functions mainly relating to cosmetic science such as Chair of the Science and Education Committee, Scientific Editor of the IFSCC Magazine and President (2007-2008).

He published about 450 papers, posters, book chapters, columns and podium presentations in the field of topical drug delivery and cosmetic science. He is a regularly invited speaker at both scientific and commercial conferences all over the world. He won Best Paper Awards at the 1998 SCS Annual Conference (Manchester, UK), the 1999 SCC Annual Scientific Conference (New York, USA), the IFSCC Congress Best Poster Award (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK; 2002), the 2003 IFSCC Conference Award (Seoul, Korea; 2003) and the ISBS Best Poster Award (Orlando, FL, USA; 2004). He was Chair of the Scientific Committee of the highly successful 2007 IFSCC Conference held in Amsterdam in September 2007 where he was named President of the IFSCC.