Grad Students receive AFPE Fellowships

Medicinal Chemistry graduate students David Huang and Kimberly Maize were awarded 2014 American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education (AFPE) Pre-Doctoral Fellowships in the Pharmaceutical Sciences. David is a member of the Georg lab and Kim is in the Finzel lab.

Stephanie Breunig – Summer Research Fellowship

Stephanie Breunig, an undergraduate chemistry major performing research in the Harki laboratory, was awarded a Heisig/Gleysteen summer research fellowship from the Department of Chemistry. The fellowship includes a $4500 summer stipend and $500 for travel to a scientific conference to present research results.

Maggie Olson – First Exceptional Grad Student Award

The faculty of the department of Medicinal Chemistry recently established the Abul-Hajj–Hanna Exceptional Graduate Student Award in Medicinal Chemistry to honor individual excellence among graduate students. A student’s qualifications for the award include quantity and quality of research accomplishments; original research proposal for the oral exam; quality of seminars and colloquia; graduate course grade-point average since entering the program; and service and citizenship in departmental affairs.

 

The award committee has selected Margaret Olson as the first award recipient.  She will receive a $1000.00 prize and will give a research-based departmental seminar during the award event on May 6, 2014. Dan Harki is Maggie's advisor.

 

Med Chem graduate receives highest ACS Award

The American Chemical Society Division of Medicinal Chemistry awarded the 2014 Robert M. Scarborough Award for Graduate/Post-Graduate Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry to Mike Peterson, former graduate of Robert Fecik, based on his doctoral research here at Minnesota. This award, the highest given to a graduate student or postdoc in medicinal chemistry from ACS, has gone to University graduates two years in a row. Micah Niphakis, former graduate student of Gunda Georg, received the 2013 award.

Dr. Rebecca Cuellar – Distinguished Poster Award

Becca Cuellar, ITDD research assistant professor, was awarded the Distinguished Poster Award for Senior Researcher at the Mayo Clinic Young Investigators' Research Symposium held in Rochester March 22-23, 2014. She presented "Design, Synthesis, and In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluation of Retinoic Acid Receptor-Alpha Antagonists for Male Contraception."

Dr. Gunda Georg - Kenneth E. Avis Professorship

Department head and ITDD director Gunda Georg was awarded the 2014 Kenneth E. Avis Distinguished Visiting Professorship in Pharmaceutical Sciences, an annual honor bestowed by the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Tennessee Health Science Center. The Avis Distinguished Visiting Professorship is named after Kenneth E. Avis who began UT’s strong history in pharmaceutical research.

In its nearly 25-year history, Dr. Georg is the first woman researcher to hold this prestigious Professorship. She presented her research entitled “Recent Progress in Male Contraception” for the Distinguished Visiting Professor Lecture on March 24, 2014 in Memphis.