...Well, almost. I’ll be in the beautiful backwoods of PA on August 1, so I thought I’d send this out a couple days early. They’ve heard of the internet there, I think...
You all received specific instructions about the state mandated furloughs that are appropriate for your group of faculty, staff, or administration. Please read and understand the ramifications, and let me know if you have any questions.
Items on the “save the date” list include:
- The 2009 Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin (PSW) Annual Meeting will be held on August 27-29 at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells. See www.pswi.org for more information.
- New: All sorts of orientation activities have been planned for our incoming BS, PharmD, and MS/PhD students running from August 21-28. Thanks for all the staff time to have everything run smoothly and to all the faculty who participate in one way or another.
- Save the date of Monday, August 31 for our fall all-School retreat. Details will soon be forthcoming. I’ll give a State of the School summary, provide important updates for the year, and conduct several items of business that require a quorum of faculty. All faculty and staff are encouraged to attend.
- New: The Graduate Student Mixer has been scheduled for Friday, September 4 from 5:30-7:30 in the Commons. Come and meet new and existing grad students and hear about wonderful fellowships and awards for the year.
- The first of our named lectures to be held in the fall will be the Rennebohm Lectures. Bill Evans, Director and CEO of the St. Jude Children’s Hospital, will be giving two lectures on Thursday, September 10. More information to follow. Thanks to Paul Hutson (PPD) for serving as Bill’s campus host. A great article about Bill, “Father of Clinical Pharmacogenomics,” was recently published in Pharmacy Today and can be accessed at http://apha.imirus.com/Mpowered/imirusApp.jsp?volume=pt15&issue=6&page=44, along with a podcast interview.
- The second named lectures of the fall will be the Busse Lectures, scheduled for October 22 and 23. We are pleased to have Valentino Stella, Distinguished Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Kansas, visit us as the 2009 Busse Lecturer.
- New: The third (and last, I think…) named lecture of the fall will be the inaugural Hutchinson Lecture, honoring PharmSci professor emeritus C. Richard “Hutch” Hutchinson. The 2009 Hutchinson Lecturer will be Bill Fenical, Professor and Director of the Marine Research Division at UCSD and Director of the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Mark your calendars for November 13.
- Make plans now to attend the 2009 Pharmacy Alumni Association Reunion Weekend on November 13 and 14. Similar to past years, SOP faculty and staff are welcome and encouraged to attend the Friday event as my guests. 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! Pam French (Alumni Relations) will be providing additional details later.
FYI… Federal stimulus money to UW-Madison has topped more than $26M so far, with 90 awards received so far. I know many of you have been involved in the extensive grant review activities required to make the system work...thank you!
Some faculty activities that have crossed my desk recently:
- A warm welcome to Tim Bugni (PharmSci), who officially begins his appointment with us on August 1. He’s all moved in already, however, is submitting grants and going great guns. Welcome, Tim! You can find him in room 5117. There was a very good article about natural products drug discovery published in the July 10 issue of Science (see http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/325/5937/161) that references Tim’s work. I couldn’t easily tell if our other natural products experts were included, but it is an excellent review of this research area.
- We’re very pleased to have Eric Buxton set to join the ESP faculty on September 1.
- Efforts to finalize the PharmSci faculty position for Robert Thorne continue.
- Tom Thielke (PPD/Global Health), recently retired from 4 decades of service at UWHC and the School, has been granted emeritus status by the University. He’ll be around a fair amount working with Connie Kraus and Curt Johnson (PPD/Global Health). I’m also pleased to announce that Tom has been named the 2009 Alumni of the Year!
- Andrea Duchac (PPD) was selected for participation in the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin’s Leadership Conference.
- Many congratulations are in order for faculty who successfully competed for Pilot Grants from the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR). Clinical and Type I Translational: Lingjun Li (PharmSci); Sandro Mecozzi (PharmSci); Warren Rose (PPD). Type II Translational (1 year): Henry Young (SAS). Type II Translational (2 years): Eva Vivian (PPD). In fact, Eva’s UNITY (Utilizing Novel Interventions to Prevent Diabetes in Youth) project has garnered significant press coverage. See www.rcreader.com/news-releases/the-steep-cost-of-cheap-food-obesity-and-diabetes-threaten-children-of-color/ and www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10756858 for a couple examples. ICTR received 113 applications for this round and 23 awards were made. SOP faculty received 5 of them...not too shabby. Well done, everyone!
- And many thanks to other faculty who served as grant reviewers for the ICTR grants: Betty Chewning (SAS), Warren Heideman (PharmSci/Research), Paul Hutson (PPD), Jill Kolesar (PPD), Paul Marker (PharmSci), Sandro Mecozzi (PharmSci), and Chris Sorkness (PPD).
- Jeff Johnson’s (PharmSci) two competing renewals were, indeed, funded…double congratulations there!
- I don’t think the Notice of Award is officially in yet, but Weiping Tang (PharmSci) is on the verge of receiving his first R01...way to go!
Notable notes from the staff include:
- Congratulations to Becky Beebe (Student and Academic Affairs/Diversity) on her promotion to Student Services Coordinator.
- Also to Delinda Johnson (PharmSci, Johnson group) for her promotion to Researcher.
- Thanks to Mike Pitterle (PPD/IIT) and many of the IIT staff for adding maps of the building to the electronic directories at both entrances to the building. Let me know if additional information would be beneficial.
From our students, residents, and postdocs:
- Congratulations to recent PharmSci PhD graduate, Amy Chung (Kao lab), for her appointment as a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA’s Department of Bioengineering.
- Ye Sun (Yu group) won the 2009 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Graduate Student Symposium Award in Physical Pharmacy and Biopharmaceutics, which he will receive at the upcoming AAPS meeting in LA. Ye also won the 2009 Merck Graduate Student Fellowship after a nation-wide competition… congratulations!
- On a related note, Lei Zhu (Yu group) won the best poster award at the 2009 AAPS Workshop on Evolving Science and Technology in Physical Pharmacy and Biopharmaceutics held recently in Baltimore...great work!
- Thanks again to Yangli Wang (DPH-3) for his participation this summer, under the direction of Becky Beebe (SAA/Diversity), as the SOP intern for the 8 high school students interested in pharmacy through the Pre-College Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence (PEOPLE) Program. Henry Young (SAS) and Jeanine Mount (SAS/Academic Affairs) have also been instrumental. Sadly, one ended up with swine flu...
The recent violation of NIH biosafety guidelines for research with rDNA and potentially infectious organisms has led to a number of new requirements, including mandated training and incident reporting for all PIs and research staff and students involved in any biosafety protocol. This is not optional. NIH funding to specific PIs or to UW-Madison as a whole is at risk. Please take this seriously. An NIH audit was conducted in July, which went reasonably well, but we will be fined and subject to special scrutiny in the future. Contact Bill Mellon (PharmSci/Grad School) or visit the Biosafety Training Curriculum at www.fpm.wisc.edu/biosafety/. Again, this is not optional.
The UW SOP was very well represented at the recent American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) in Boston. So many things to mention...I know I’ll miss something, so consider these highlights. Paul Hutson (PPD) served as the UW faculty representative. Greg Higby (AIHP/SAS) was elected Chair-elect of the History of Pharmacy SIG and Karen Kopacek (PPD) as Chair-elect of the Laboratory Instructors SIG. Karen also moderated a round table session, as did Andrea Duchac and Susie Barnett (both PPD). Marty Kieser (PPD/Experiential Ed/CPRP) was primary author of our School poster about experiential education, and Karen and Casey Gallimore (PPD) were primary authors on other posters in the Research/Education session. Ruth Bruskiewitz (ESP) was involved in CE activities. Jeremy Altschafl (SAA/Admissions) and Jeanine Mount (SAS/Academic Affairs) attended a special meeting about PharmCAS, the centralized admissions system that we will be moving to in the future. Linda Halsey (Development) joined in the new SIG in the fund raising area. Special recognition was made at the banquet for the winners of the AFPE Pre-Doctoral Fellows in the Pharmaceutical Sciences (Grant Buchanan, Hsung group, and Richard Gantt, Thorson group); the recipients of the AACP New Investigators awards (Warren Rose, PPD); the AACP/Wal-Mart Scholars (Amanda Pitterle and Karen Kopacek (PPD, mentor); and the Teachers of the Year (Beth Martin, PPD). Congratulations to all!
The Big 10 pharmacy deans met before the AACP meeting and also engaged the ACPE Board and staff in a discussion about accreditation standards. Jeanine Mount and her colleagues from around the Big 10 also held a special meeting on the multiple areas of assessment they are working on.
Thanks to many SOP faculty, students, and alumni for testifying at the recent public hearing by the Assembly Committee on Public Health about the Pharmacy Examining Board’s proposal to eliminate the consultation exam that had been required for licensure as a pharmacist in Wisconsin. I believe the exam will end up being eliminated, but our data-driven testimony, especially the compelling comments by the students, gave the Committee a lot to think about.
In the alumni, donor, and friend category:
- After the Boston AACP meeting, Linda Halsey (Development) and I had the opportunity to visit with alum Sharon Laughlin at Sepracor, as well as alum Roger Tung, CEO of Concert Pharmaceuticals in Lexington. As mentioned last month, Roger’s work was featured prominently in the June 22 edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) for his company’s substantial progress in altering drug safety and efficacy by selective deuteration. See http://pubs.acs.org/isubscribe/journals/cen/87/i25/html/8725sci1.html.
- Congratulations to the 2009 award recipients from the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin…all our alums! Pharmacist of the Year—Susan Kleppin; Distinguished Service Award—Susan Sutter; Young Pharmacist of the Year—Nicholas Olson; and Innovative Pharmacy Practice Award—Char Smith…well done!
- Congratulations also the recent winners of the 2009 PSW elections…also all our alums! Terry Maves, President-Elect; Kurt Holm, Treasurer; At-Large Directors, Michelle Farrell, Marv Moore, and Mary Rice; Region A Director, Pat Cory; Region C Director, Xin Ruppel; and Region E Director, Dean Gruber.
- Also, congrats to a soon-to-be-alumni, Megan Sheahan, for receiving the 2009 PSW Student Achievement Award.
- To remind you about the people who have been selected as 2009 Citation of Merit recipients: alums Jim Wright, Richard Scheife, Ken Kirk, and Lynn Van Campen...what a great group! And don’t forget to add Tom Thielke, 2009 Alumni of the Year, to the list. They will all be recognized at the Friday Dean’s Reception during the PAA Reunion Weekend on November 13. Please plan to attend as my guests.
- I had a chance to visit a few alums/clinical instructors around town last month, including Dan Lowenberg and Doug DeBroux at Walgreens on Whitney Way; Greg Hebl at Walgreens on Verona Road; Tim Melin at Walgreens on McKee Road; and Lori Jenson and Abby Bouton at Target on McKee Road. Thanks to Pam French (Alumni Affairs) for setting up my wanderings.
- Alum Ken Miller, Senior VP at AACP, announced his retirement at the Boston meeting...the end of an era!
- Congratulations to alums Robert Augustine, Patricia Fowler, Peter Lloyd, and Elizabeth Woelfel, who are celebrating 25 years of service with Walgreens.
Did I really see a Back-To-School ad the other day...?? Take care...Jeanette