Faculty of Pharmacy Graduate Program 1962-2012

Dear Pharmacy Graduate Alumni

2012 marks the 50 year Anniversary of the Commencement of Formal Graduate Education in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Manitoba. As we enter into our sixth decade of training of Masters of Science and Doctor of Philosophy Students in Pharmacy it is a good time to pause and reflect on our considerable achievements. In quantitative terms we have graduated 110 graduate students to date since the intake of our first cohort of M.Sc. students (Dr. Wayne Anderson and Millie Ritchie) in the fall of 1962.  We have now successfully trained and developed 80 MSc. students and 30 Ph.D. students.

Qualitatively, the stories of the successful careers of our graduate student alumni are incredibly inspiring. Our graduate students have gone on and represented us in academia, governmental agencies, in health care and in the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Wayne Anderson is currently the Dean of Pharmacy in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University at Buffalo. Several of our graduate alumni including Drs. Simons, Burcynski, Cote, Namaka, and Iacovides, and  Friesen currently have appointments at the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Manitoba and other alumni including Prof. Bilous and Thedani had successful teaching and research careers here as well. Other alumni including Drs. Bend, Sitar, Thiessen, and Weitzel have had remarkable research and administrative careers. While Drs. Yeung, Procyshyn and Carrie, have served other Faculties of Pharmacy with Bison Pride. These are only a few highlights of our many fantastic graduate alumni from the Faculty of Pharmacy. Over the decades the number of MSc. and Ph.D. students has been increasing in numbers and we currently have a cohort of some 20 graduate students pursuing degrees in our Faculty and continuing the tradition of quality research and scholarship in pharmacy graduate education.

Please contact us and let us know your where abouts.  We look forward to keeping in touch with you and hearing your achievements and your stories since your graduation. All of our alumni are welcome to visit the current Faculty of Pharmacy building. We would like to invite all our graduate alumni of the Faculty of Pharmacy back to the University of Manitoba for Homecoming 2012 in September. We have invited former alumni BSc (Pharm) 1962, MSc. Pharmaceutical Chemistry 1965 Dean Wayne K. Anderson back to kick off a special seminar series entitled: “Pharmacy Grandrounds 1962-2012” highlighting our graduate student alumni  and their research and careers. These exciting conversations will commence in September 2012. We look forward to seeing and hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Neal M. Davies

Dean Faculty of Pharmacy