Malcolm Stevens is well known for his groundbreaking research into treatments for cancer and he is the inventor of temozolomide, an oral chemotherapy drug used to treat brain tumours. Malcolm is also responsible for bringing a number of other drugs to clinical trials whilst leading the Cancer Research UK-funded Experimental Cancer Chemotherapy Research Group at Aston University and the University of Nottingham over a 25-year period.

Thanks to his familiarity with the literature of chemistry, cancer biology and pharmacology, Malcolm discovered that he had an aptitude for developing molecules. Early on in his career, he decided to investigate the properties of molecules that were rich in nitrogen; making compounds containing multiple nitrogen atoms soon became the secret of Malcolm’s success.

In 1999, he was awarded an OBE for services to the development of cancer drugs. He received the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Interdisciplinary Research Award in 1991 and the George and Christine Sosnovsky Award in Cancer Therapy in 2002.