James E. Akers, PhD Akers Kennedy & Associates, Inc.

After earning a Ph.D. in medical microbiology with a concentration n virology at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, Dr. Akers spend five years in academics teaching and doing research in virology   He left academics for the pharmaceutical industry in 1981 and has been working with Shibuya since 1991. Dr. Akers served as President of PDA from 1991-1993 and served for many years on that organizations Board of Directors.  He has been a member of the United States Pharmacopeia Expert Committee on Microbiology since 1995 and served as that Committee’s Chairman from 2005 to 2010.  Dr. Akers has chaired or served on many USP expert panels on a wide range of topics including analytical microbiology, translational medicine, sterile pharmacy compounding. Dr. Akers has authored over 100 publications and written 31 text book chapters as well as editing two books.  His principal areas of interest are aseptic processing technologies, sterilization, contamination control, and analytical microbiology.