Ben Dickson is an organic chemist specialising in chemical biology, medicinal chemistry and drug development. His current research interests include development of novel cancer pharmaceuticals and antibacterial agents, synthesis of natural products and development of new strategies for target selectivity in drug design.

Key themes within these areas include: targeting of agents such that they are only active where they are needed; development of chemical biology tools to develop novel drugs, explore novel drug targets and inform targeting strategies; optimisation of synthetic routes; and use of computational tools to inform compound design. His research aims to be highly collaborative across disciplinary boundaries.

Ben is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre (University of Auckland) and an Associate Investigator of the Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery. He is a Councillor with the New Zealand Association of Scientists and Chairs the Editorial Board of the New Zealand Science Review.