Awards
Two-time Riback Fellow pursues dual interests in combined-degree program
pharmacy administration, are recipients of the Dean’s Scholar Award, the most distinguished award that UIC offers to current graduate students. Awardees are considered the most promising and most likely to make outstanding contributions to this institution and to their fields of learning. This award, given to 20 students a year, carries a stipend of $20,600 plus a tuition and fee waiver. The combined value of the three components of the Dean’s Scholar Award for this year is more than $33,500 for an Illinois resident and more than $45,500 for a nonresident. Hazem Abdelkarim and Krishna Kannan, both of medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy, along with Jason Buhrman, biopharmaceutical sciences, received Spring 2012 Provost and Deiss Awards
When Jamie Rayahin, P2, was completing her bachelor’s degree at UIC in biological sciences, she already knew that her path was leading her to pharmacy school. An admitted lover of science, Rayahin— Jamie Rayahin with a little encouragement from a pharmacist family member—saw an opportunity in to combine her enjoyment of science with an interest in patient care. “What I really like about pharmacy is that it’s different from medicine or dentistry, where it’s all patient physiology,” she explains. “With pharmacy, there’s more chemistry, biology, more interdisciplinary collaboration.”
But Rayahin, who’d gained experience conducting research in both high school and undergrad, envisioned herself potentially pursuing a career in industry. So, to supplement her clinical education on the way to her PharmD, Rayahin chose to pursue her PhD in biopharmaceutical sciences as well. “It [the PharmD/PhD program] gives you other outlets in terms of career opportunities, like academia and industry,” says Rayahin, whose areas of interest include pharmaceutics and drug delivery. “In that sense, it can be good for someone who doesn’t know what they want to do with their PharmD, or if their interests are split between clinical and research.” Rayahin strongly recommends, however, that students interested in the joint program get some research experience under their belts—that they learn what it takes to be a researcher. “I love that UIC has this program, that I can study both the clinical side and basic science at the same time,” says Rayahin. “This is the greatest opportunity I’ve had in my entire life.”
Jolly Good Fellows College of Pharmacy David J. Riback Research Fellows receive a $5,000 stipend to pursue research training in the summer for ten weeks, full-time. Upon completion, fellows submit a report and are encouraged to present their results during the annual COP Research Days.
for Graduate Research. The awards, ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 towards research costs, recognizes outstanding students in their fields of study and is administered by the UIC Graduate College.
You, too, can recognize and support today’s finest pharmaceutical researchers at the College. Visit pharmalumni.uic.edu for details.
2012 Fellows: Alexandra Goncharenko, pharmacy practice Kim Heesue, pharmacy practice Hyungsik Ahn, biopharmaceutical sciences Jamie Rayahin, biopharmaceutical sciences Glenn Roma, biopharmaceutical sciences Peter Shanin, biopharmaceutical sciences
Photos by Joshua Clark Catalyst – Summer 2012 – pharmalumni.uic.edu |
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