Dr. Fairbanks graduated from the University of Vermont (UVM) with a BS in medical technology. During the Vietnam War, he was drafted into US Army, where he served as a Medical Lab Specialist at Fort Dix, Fort Sam Houston, Fort Sheridan, and the US Public Health Clinic in Chicago.
Upon honorable discharge from the Army, he completed a Master of Science degree in botany, focusing on phycology, and cell biology from UVM. He continued working in the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont Clinical Laboratory as the Supervisor of Clinical Immunology while completing a Master of Education degree in foundations of education at UVM. Upon graduation with the M.Ed., he accepted an Assistant Professor position in the Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences at the University of Illinois (Medical Center). He taught immunology and several other laboratory science components while completing a Ph.D. at Rush University in the Department of Immunology. He also had a part-time position as supervisor of the hematology lab at the 1,000 bed Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center (now Rush University Medical Center).
Upon completing his Ph.D., he was offered a position at Abbott Laboratories in the Abbott Diagnostics Division. He worked on numerous products involving tests for allergy, cancer, and infectious diseases, including strep throat and HIV, and 15 consumer diagnostics. In addition to tests, he evaluated numerous Abbott instruments and markets worldwide.
From Abbott, he was recruited to Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). He served as a Global Marketing Research Manager for infectious diseases and cancer, and then Global Product Manager for cancer products including, TAXOL®. After pharmaceuticals, he moved to the Director of Corporate Marketing Research, involving medical devices and consumer products, which led to mergers and acquisitions and corporate consulting, where he worked with such companies as Boston Consulting, McKinsey, AD Little, Navigant, Medical Data International, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and JP Morgan.
From BMS, he moved to Pharmacia into the oncology pharmaceuticals group, and when Pfizer acquired Pharmacia, he returned to BMS as the Director of oncology licensing.
As the Director of oncology licensing, he evaluated nearly 250 new compounds, products, and ideas from almost as many companies per year. He monitored several development programs, including the TAXOL® synthesis project from Florida State University, for five years. Notable projects and companies involved included ImClone, Medarex, National Institute of Health, and Nerviano Medical Sciences. Then he moved to Florida.
Currently, he is a Professor III of Biology and Microbiology. He is the Department Head for Biology at Palm Beach State College, and teaches biology, microbiology, horticulture, and botany. He also teaches a graduate course in biotechnology business at Florida Atlantic University in the Biology and Business Graduate School. At Palm Beach Atlantic University, he was a guest lecturer in pharmacology for rheumatoid arthritis. He taught in several courses for immunology, biotechnology, transplantation, and infectious diseases, all in the Gregory School of Pharmacy. In 2019 he received the NISOD Excellence Award presented at the annual national meeting in Austin, TX. He is the faculty advisor to the PBSC Medical Professions Association Club. Finally, he guest lectures at Nova Southeastern University’s graduate pharmacy program on the role of marketing research in the pharmaceutical industry.