Graduate students in the UNMC College of Pharmacy department of pharmaceutical sciences organized the 34th Annual Pharmaceutics Graduate Student Research Meeting, which took place at the Double Tree Hotel from June 13-15.
More than 200 people, mostly graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, from 13 universities attended the meeting.
Peter Kador, Ph.D., chairman of the department of pharmaceutical sciences in the College of Pharmacy, credited the department’s graduate students for their superior planning of the conference.
“The logistics planning, preparation of abstract booklet, and meeting quality rivaled many of the international meetings that I have organized. We clearly have graduate students with exceptional organizational skills which rival their scientific abilities,” Dr. Kador said.
College of Pharmacy Dean Clarence Ueda, Pharm.D., Ph.D., expressed similar sentiments. Dr. Ueda said the meeting marked only the second time in its 34-year history that students in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Graduate Program (PSGP) were selected by their peers to host the Annual Pharmaceutics Graduate Student Research Meeting. The first time was in 1994.
“The Pharmaceutical Sciences graduate students are to be commended for putting on such an outstanding meeting. They set the ‘gold standard’ for meeting quality and excellence,” Dr. Ueda said. “Everyone associated with the university, medical center campus and College of Pharmacy can be proud of the accomplishments of our PSGP students.
“The PGSRM was one of the best organized, and best run research meetings I’ve ever attended. You would have thought paid professionals, with a huge budget, put the meeting together.”
William Elmquist, Ph.D., and Uday Kompella, Ph.D., associate professors in the department of pharmaceutical sciences, served as advisors for the meeting. Twenty-three pharmaceutical companies, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) and UNMC sponsored the 2002 meeting. Nine of those companies had representatives at the meeting to interview graduate students for prospective positions in the pharmaceutical industry.
During the three-day meeting, attendees had the opportunity to compete in podium presentations and poster sessions, as well as listen to several speakers. In addition, they toured the research laboratories in the College of Pharmacy. In each laboratory, a member of the UNMC faculty or a senior researcher acquainted the visitors with the research projects in which the lab was involved.
“The tour was a means to make the visitors aware of the excellent research facilities at UNMC and the broad spectrum of research activities being undertaken,” Dr. Kador said.
Twenty graduate students presented their research work during the podia presentations, all of which were moderated by UNMC graduate students. The poster session drew around 60 posters. Graduate students from several universities evaluated and judged the presentations.
For their excellent performance in the podia sessions, Yong Qiu from Purdue University, Ge Jiang from the University of Kentucky, and Karunya Kandimalla from the University of Iowa were awarded first, second and third prizes, respectively. Graduate students Yoon Yeo from Purdue University, Elisabete Goncalves from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Richa Khambete from the University of Missouri-Kansas City received the top three prizes for their research excellence in the poster session. In addition to a certificate of merit, the prizes included cash awards of $300, $200 and $100.
In his keynote address, Richard F. Bergstrom, Ph.D., research advisor for Eli Lilly and Company, emphasized the need for researchers to be good scientists and to practice good science. The key elements to good science, Dr. Bergstrom said, are “integrity, thirst for excellence and respect for people.”
Wayne Colburn, Ph.D., vice president for research and development at MDS Pharma Services, also spoke during the three-day meeting. Dr. Colburn discussed the stages involved in new drug development and stressed the role of pharmacokinetic studies in this process.
Next year’s Annual Pharmaceutics Graduate Student Research Meeting will be at the University of Chicago (Ill.). The University of Iowa will host the 2004 meeting.
Photos in descending order: 1) About 60 posters detailing graduate students’ research projects were available for viewing during the 34th Annual Pharmaceutics Graduate Student Research Meeting on June 13-15. Graduate students in the UNMC College of Pharmacy department of pharmaceutical sciences organized the meeting; 2) UNMC graduate students Naveed Shaik, left, and Surya P. Ayalasomayajula, in hat, enjoy a break in the meeting with Luis Marky, Ph.D., professor in the department of pharmaceutical sciences. In the background is UNMC graduate students Nagdeep Giri; 3) Kyung Oh, a UNMC graduate student, gives a presentation on his research.