{"id":8993,"date":"2011-04-01T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/?p=8993"},"modified":"2011-04-01T12:00:38","modified_gmt":"2011-04-01T12:00:38","slug":"newsletter-2011-spring-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/2011\/04\/01\/newsletter-2011-spring-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Dean's Message"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Dean’s Message<\/h3>\n

Long Winter Finally Yields to Spring<\/h1>\n

It\u2019s been a \"\"little longer winter and break from issuing newsletters than we would have liked or intended. The long break has not been without news of accomplishments and great progress at your college. We\u2019ve won awards, advanced the building project under difficult conditions and also built new relationships around the world that will benefit our faculty, students, research and teaching agenda.
\nIn February I traveled with Dr.\u2019s Ahmed, Parang, Seeram<\/a> and Shaikh on different legs to India, Pakistan and United Arab Emirates. We visited academic institutions, partner industrial companies and spoke at conferences and seminars. The trip formalized academic understandings between The University of Rhode Island and a number of Universities in the region including the University of Dehli and Karachi University. Our goal was to establish faculty to faculty relationships which could be leveraged to advance research and provide international learning opportunities for URI\u2019s students. The hospitality of those who sponsored our trip was so impressive; it has led our group to want to work harder with our international visitors to be sure we return the kind graces we received. The college, as is the rest of the University, is advancing our global agenda and the diversity of our community according to plans by President Dooley and Provost DeHayes who are leading the efforts to bring the world to Kingston. See the academic plan (link below) for more information.
\nThe new college facility is quickly being closed in, and interior work is rapidly progressing. The building is on track to open in early 2012. While the difficult winter caused more down time than would have been optimal, the contractors continue to make good progress, and planning of the finer details of the interior laboratory and teaching facilities is reaching conclusion. We continue to seek funding assistance to make this the best College of Pharmacy facility<\/a> possible, and we have hopes of funding a Botanical Garden<\/a> and Conservatory addition to the project with donor assistance.
\nWe have had an excellent semester of awards and accolades for our students and faculty.
\nMarch 2011 \u2014 At URI\u2019s first Discovery@URI day College of Pharmacy graduate students took first and third place honors. Simon Sarkisian, a MS student in the College of Pharmacy, and his group for their work on \u201cInhibition of Bacterial Growth and Biofilm Production by Metabolites from Hypericum spp\u201d took the top research prize. The work, in collaboration with the VA Medical Center Infectious Disease Research Laboratory and Susquehanna University in PA, may lead to new antimicrobial treatments. In a tie for Third Place, Joseph Schrader a B.S.P.S. student in the College of Pharmacy won honors for his work entitled \u201cSynthesis, Purification, and In-Silico Modeling of Second Generation Anti-Epileptic Compounds.\u201d This was an amazing showing for the college at this first time event showcasing the best and brightest student and faculty collaborative research efforts! Congratulations to all those involved!
\nView the posters @ https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/news\/discovery2011<\/a>
\nJanuary 2011 \u2014 In the fall Dr. Iqbal Choudhary, Director of the University of Karachi\u2019s International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, was hosted by the College of Pharmacy as URI\u2019s first Distinguished International Visiting Scholar. In return, Dr. Choudhary hosted us in Karachi at ICCBS which was a most impressive potential collaborator for our natural products medicinal research.
\nFebruary 2011 \u2014 President Dooley joined myself and URI professors from Pharmacy and Horticulture at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden<\/a> to formalize an understanding between the two organizations. Phipps is led by College Alum, Richard Piacentini \u201877. Piacentini went on to earn a masters in Botany and a masters of Business Administration and was recently selected to receive a lifetime achievement award from the American Horticulturists Society.
\nMarch 2011 \u2014 College of Pharmacy alum Paul Hastings \u201884 received the University\u2019s Lifetime Achievement Diversity Award<\/a>. Also, as President and Chief Executive Officer of OncoMed, Paul gave lectures on the research efforts of his company and his pathway to success.
\nApril 2011 \u2014 The Kappa Psi<\/a> Brothers and the College were honored by the Rhode Island Blood Center for our service to their bone marrow and blood drives.
\nMay 2011 \u2014 Dr. Erica Estus received the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists Leadership in Education Award<\/a> for her highly acclaimed geriatric care program. Congratulations Erica, keep up the passionate commitment to this population and to changing our students\u2019 lives and commitment to care in the process.
\nMay 2011 \u2014 College of Pharmacy Dr. Nasser Zawia<\/a> was appointed Dean of the URI Graduate School after serving as Interim Dean. The selection of Dr. Zawia and the advances being made in the graduate school under his leadership are sources of pride for the College of Pharmacy! In Collaboration with Dr. Zawia and the Graduate School, the College of Pharmacy will again host a Distinguished International Visiting Scholar this fall. Dr. Patrick Aebischer, President of Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) will visit URI this next semester. He is a Brown University Alumnus and conducts leading research on neurodegenerative diseases at this world renowned Swiss Research Institute.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

It\u2019s been a long winter and now finally we are experiencing spring. Despite the weather, your college is shining daily, and we look forward to our upcoming commencement and next fall\u2019s white coat ceremony. You\u2019ll see a commencement edition of this newsletter rather quickly in comparison to this long wait. Please enjoy. Remember we need your help to continue our great work, and plan to visit our new facility anytime you are in the area by contacting me.
\nDean Ronald P. Jordan \u201876<\/strong>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

Newsletter Article – Spring 2011 Edition<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dean’s Message Long Winter Finally Yields to Spring It\u2019s been a little longer winter and break from issuing newsletters than we would have liked or intended. The long break has not been without news of accomplishments and great progress at your college. We\u2019ve won awards, advanced the building project under difficult conditions and also built […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":639,"featured_media":8813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter-spring2011"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/639"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}