Everyone should have received an invitation for the next major event celebrating our 125th anniversary--the Scientific Symposium, including the 2008 Rennebohm Lecturers, to be held on October 2-3. Several visiting speakers and our own faculty are slated to participate, and Dr. Ahvie Herskowitz from the Institute for OneWorld Health (the only non-profit pharmaceutical company in the world) will serve as the 2008 Rennebohm Lecturer. The full program can be found at http://www.pharmacy.wisc.edu/125_symposium/. The 2-day symposium is incredibly rich with a look back at the history of the School and the value of a UW education, a session highlighting our present excellence and impact especially in translational work, and a glimpse toward a future where drug development and science in general might be focused and conducted in a very different way for very different reasons. More next month about the planning committee and the multitudes involved in pulling this off.
Items on the "save the date"list include:
- New: The next Executive Committee meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 7 at 12 noon in room 1128. Please note: 11 members and 9 advisory members must be present to constitute a quorum for general business; two promotions to clinical associate professor of key UWHC partners requires 14 members and 12 advisory members.
- The American Institute of the History of Pharmacy (AIHP) will be hosting a conference at the School on October 17-18 entitled "Modern Medicines: New Perspectives in Pharmaceutical History." Additional details and registration information can be found at www.aihp.org.
- Our third annual Faculty Recognition Event has been scheduled for Tuesday, October 28 from 3-5pm in the Commons. Come, share a snack and a beverage, and take a moment to recognize and thank our faculty for all their accomplishments and contributions to research, education, service, outreach, and practice.
- New: The annual Busse Lectures, honoring Professor Emeritus Louis Busse, will be held on November 13 and 14. The Busse Lecturer this year is one of our distinguished alumni, Dr. Kinam Park from Purdue University.
- New: Two forums for the full faculty to discuss PharmD curricular revision ideas will be scheduled in October and November. Stay tuned for more information and details.
- Make plans now to attend the 2008 Pharmacy Alumni Association Reunion Weekend on November 14 and 15. Among the citation award winners this year are our very own Dan Rich (PharmSci emeritus) and Tom Thielke (UWHC/PPD). Similar to past years, SOP faculty and staff are welcome and encouraged to attend the Friday event as my guests, but you do have to RSVP. Dean's Club members (donors at or above $500 for the year) will also be invited as my guests. Those faculty and staff that are also Dean's Club members will get twice the thanks! Contact Pam French (Alumni Affairs) for details.
- Please set aside Tuesday, December 16, 11:30-1:30pm for a faculty meeting to take care of year end business. Please note: 26 faculty (all tracks, all ranks) are required to constitute a quorum to hold a formal vote.
It must be something in the water... We welcome another new baby to the School of Pharmacy family, born to Weiping Tang (PharmSci) on September 2. Mother and baby (Zachary Daorui Tang) are reported to be doing fine. Congratulations and best wishes to our new parents!
The 2008 SOP Scholarships Ceremony was held as usual in September. This wonderful event provides an opportunity for individual and corporate donors to meet the students who receive scholarships resulting from their generosity. It is a testament to the power of philanthropy. This year the School provided almost $370,000 in financial support to over 135 BS and PharmD students. This total includes about $120,000 in UW Advanced Opportunity Fellowship support for underrepresented minority students, of which we are very proud. This total also includes a record $250,000 in scholarship support from our endowed funds and annual gifts, up from $140,000 just a few years ago. An amazing record that included four new scholarships this year, including one honoring the memory of DPH-3 student Adam Nickel, who died tragically last March. Thanks to Linda Halsey (Development) for all her work on behalf of our students, to Pam French (Alumni Affairs) for organizing such a lovely event, for assistance from Melanie Schneider and Becky Beebe (Student and Academic Affairs), to Beth Martin (PPD) for her expert emcee role as chair of the Scholarships Committee, to other members of the Committee, and to the faculty and staff who took the time to attend. One of my very favorite events...
The Annual Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin (PSW) Meeting was held in September in Green Bay. Thanks to the faculty who admirably represented the School in many ways and to the almost 85 students who attended! It was great seeing a roomful of alums at the Pharmacy Alumni Association (PAA) luncheon during the meeting, where alum Karen Smith was installed as PAA President.
To continue progress on the rural pharmacy initiative, the Academic Work Group met again at the School in September to further efforts to encourage our graduates to consider employment in rural areas of the state. Greater interactions with rural practitioners as students and potential financial incentives and rewards were main topics of discussion.
As mentioned previously, I'm in the process of sitting down individually with all members of the SOP faculty and staff to listen to your views about whatever aspects, features, areas you feel I need to hear about. Thanks in advance for taking the time to provide feedback to me in this way.
Some recent faculty highlights to mention:
- Mara Kieser (PPD/Experiential Education/Community Residency) has successfully added a fourth site to our growing UW Community Pharmacy Residency Program - Group Health Cooperative in Madison. The other sites under our administrative umbrella are Marshland Pharmacies, Two Rivers, and Morton Pharmacies.
- I mentioned last month that the new textbook "Pharmacotherapy Principles and Practice" received the American Medical Writers Association Distinguished 2008 Medical Book Healthcare Professionals Award. I managed to omit the fact that Jill Kolesar (PPD) also authored a chapter in this award winning text.
- Jon Thorson (PharmSci), along with other centers and groups around campus (including the Zeeh Pharmaceutical Experiment Station (ZPES)), were highlighted in a recent article entitled "UW-Madison's Mini Bio-City" in the September issue of Greater Madison In Business magazine.
- Pictures from the symposium honoring Dick Hutchinson (PharmSci emeritus) are available. Contact Joni Mitchell if you would like to see them.
- The work of Tim Heath (PharmSci emeritus) and colleagues in the School of Veterinary Medicine on liposome-encapsulated opioids for pain relief in animals was featured in the September 18 edition of Wisconsin Week.
- Josh Thorpe (SAS) recently received an affiliate faculty appointment in the Department of Population Health Sciences.
- The university publishes a nice booklet each fall detailing the tenure track faculty who were recently promoted. This year, the SOP was represented by Sandro Mecozzi (PharmSci), promoted to associate professor, and Betty Chewning (SAS), Jeff Johnson, John Kao, and Glen Kwon (all PharmSci), all promoted to full professor.
In terms of staff news:
- Sadly, Evelyn Deneen, long-time SOP staff member in the Business Office, passed away in September. Many of you may have worked with her in years past.
- We said good-bye to IIT staff member Chris Spencer and our Director of Assessment Laura Breu (Student and Academic Affairs) in September. Fortunately, we are saying hello to Eric Robinson, already hired for the IIT vacancy. The searches for the assessment and diversity positions are in progress.
- Ed Elder, Mark Sacchetti, and the entire staff of the ZPES have been awarded a significant grant from USP to explore pharmacy compounding analytical method development and stability testing.
- Diane Stojanovich (Communications) crossed the finish line at the Madison IronMan with a time of 14:57:10. I'm speechless!
- Under the new title of Director of Student Affairs, Melanie Schneider (Student and Academic Affairs) has taken on an expanded leadership role in SAA where she now is coordinating the administration of a variety of student services programs. Key aspects include overseeing academic advising activities and directing career advising services. (You'll recall recent emails from her about the Faculty and Staff Career Mentoring Program.) She continues to work closely with students who experience academic difficulties, to serve as a liaison between the School and other campus units, and is a great resource to faculty, staff and students about a variety of students-related issues.
- SAA will also be publishing an eNewsletter from time to time to keep faculty, staff, and students up to speed on important activities, deadlines, and other news.
- Congratulations go to Linda Halsey (Development) whose tennis team not only won the Wisconsin State Championship this year, but then went on to win the regionals in Indiana. Nationals in Arizona were not quite so successful for the team, but at least they got there!
From our student and trainee groups:
- The annual Graduate Student Mixer was a great opportunity to meet our new graduate students, provided a forum to announce graduate fellowship recipients and award winners, and allowed us to thank some of the generous donors who make this support possible. Special guests at the mixer this year included Ken Connors (PharmSci/Dean emeritus, honored by alum Jordan Cohen with a fellowship in his name), Steve Skolaski (President of the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation), and Peggy Weiderholt and daughter Mekel, helping us remember and honor the late SAS faculty member Joe Weiderholt. Thanks to emcee Chuck Lauhon (PharmSci/Graduate Studies), Linda Frei (Graduate Program Office), Anna Reinhart (Dean's Office), and the IIT group for the great work in organizing and holding this wonderful event and for all who attended. Congratulations to all recipients!
- Our named graduate fellowships were received by: Connors - Bruce Badley and Wei Zhang (PharmSci); Kier - Renhe Liu (PharmSci); Perlman - Na Liu (PharmSci); Resch - Hui Ye (PharmSci); Roudebush - Zichuan Zhang (PharmSci); Vervoren - Brett Kopina (PharmSci); Wiederholt - Abhijit Gadkari (SAS).
- The PharmSci graduate student travel awards went to: Biological Sciences (pharmacology/drug action) - Ofek Bar-Ilan; Lachman (pharmaceutics/drug delivery) - Howard Chen and Amy Chung; Witiak (medicinal chemistry/drug discovery) - Mingming Ma and Hanmi Xi.
- The SAS graduate student travel awards went to: Wiederholt - Yu-Chieh (Jack) Chen (2 awards), Addi Faerber, Abhijit Gadkari (2 awards), Shih-Ying (Audrey) Hung (2 awards), Jeong Sun (Monica) Hwang (2 awards), Korey Kennelty, Pallavi Patwardhan (2 awards), Suntaree Watcharadamrongkun (2 awards), and Grace Welman.
- Matt Slattery (Heideman group, PharmSci) won the Rennebohm Dissertator Award for the best Ph.D. dissertation of the past year.
- Abhijit Gadkari (Chewning group, SAS), Monica Hwang (Mott group, SAS), Kwadwo Owusu-Ofori (Mellon group, PharmSci), and Joe Su (of course!) (Burnette group, PharmSci) received the Rennebohm Teaching Assistant Awards.
- Joe Su also received the Zaman Saroya Award this year.
- The PharmSci Division held an open house to allow UW-Madison undergraduates to explore and learn about our graduate program. Thanks to Chuck Lauhon (PharmSci/Graduate Studies) for starting to develop a strong recruiting program, to the faculty and staff (especially Ken Niemeyer (PharmSci) and Linda Frei (Graduate Program Office)) who organized and participated, and to current grad students who conducted a poster session and served as hosts to the many visitors who attended.
- Many student organizations, championed mainly by DPH-3 student Berook Addisu, sponsored a Charity Bash honoring Adam Nickel to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society that Adam cared so deeply about. Thanks to the many students who organized and monitored and cleaned up and to all the students, staff, and faculty who helped us remember and honor Adam. Over $3,000 was raised.
In the alumni, donor, and friend category:
- The American Chemical Society is celebrating the history of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and has compiled a list of the top 50 most cited papers in the journal since 1975. Alum Eric Gordon, currently a consultant involved in guiding investments in innovative technology and drug development, was on the list twice with the second and third most cited papers, and alum Phil Portoghese, a faculty member in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Minnesota, made the list at 25. What an amazing accomplishment and demonstration of excellence and impact.
- 125th Anniversary/People & Programs alumni events organized by Linda Halsey (Development) continued:
- We gathered a group of almost 30 alums and friends from the general Madison area at the UW Foundation for brats and scrambled eggs prior to hosting them in the Chancellor's Box for the Marshall game.
- We hosted a Badger Blast in Minneapolis championed by alum and PPD emerita Pam Ploetz and held at the beautiful condo of her sister Patty and husband Ed.
It's hard to believe the leaves are changing already. Enjoy the fall! Jeanette