From June 25th through June 27th, 2009, the Department of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy at Purdue University hosted the 41st Annual Pharmaceutics Graduate Student Research Meeting (PGSRM), bringing together pharmaceutics graduate students and academic and industrial experts to share their research interests and explore vast scientific issues in the diverse areas of the pharmaceutical sciences including drug design and discovery, formulation development, drug delivery, and biopharmaceutics, among others.

The Pharmaceutics Graduate Student Research Meeting (PGSRM) is a scientific program intended to foster education in the diverse areas of the pharmaceutical sciences including drug design and discovery, formulation development, drug delivery, biotechnology, biopharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and pharmaceutical materials science and analytical methods.

Each year PGSRM brings together around 250 pharmaceutics graduate students from numerous Midwestern universities in addition to academic and industrial experts to share their research interests and explore the vast scientific issues within the pharmaceutical sciences.

Graduate student presentations in poster and podia format were conducted throughout the meeting on Saturday. In addition, PGSRM 2009 featured several guest speakers from academia and industry covering key topics in pharmaceutical engineering, drug delivery, solid state chemistry, drug development and biotechnology. Moreover, the keynote address for this occasion was delivered by Dr. Alton Johnson, Vice President of the Marketed Product Support Group in Global Manufacturing Services at Pfizer, Inc., with a special focus on "Opportunities and Challenges of Globalization of the Pharmaceutical Industry".

Lastly, an interactive career development session, hosted by experts with vast experience in different aspects within the pharmaceutical world, provided an opportunity for graduate students to gain insight into their possible career directions and challenges in the pharmaceutical world.

Henry Havel visits with Robert Sepelyak at the Welcome Reception		Mary Stickelmeyer, Rodolfo Pinal and Candice Kissinger having a good time
Graduate students catching up with their peers		Participants gather for a group photo
Welcome Reception at the PMU North Ballroom		Attendees enjoying the tasty hors d'oeuvres
IPPH Graduate Student Li Pan kicks off the evening with a warm welcome		Dr. Eric Barker presents the Opening Remarks
Attendees gather around some delicious food at the Welcome Dinner		Carl Wassgren lectures about Pharmaceutical Engineering
Audience attentive during lecture		Large crowd gathers for the podia sessions
Graduate student Kyle Kleinbeck, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, gives a presentation to a broad audience		Tamara Minko, Dr. R.C. Anderson Distinguished Lecturer, presents a talk on Drug Delivery
Graduate students listen attentively during the podia presentations		Edward Kerns speaks about Compound Optimization in Drug Discovery
Attendees taking part in a presentation		Graduate student Gaurav Sahay, Univ. of Nebraska Medical Center, interacts with the audience
Participants taking notes		Graduate students gather at the poster exhibitions
Hardeep Singh Oberoi, Univ. of Nebraska Medical Center, elaborates on his work		Sihem Ait-Oudhia, Univ. at Buffalo (SUNY), explains her research to a colleague
A graduate student addresses a question from her peers		Michael Scott, North Dakota State Univ., discusses his work with a fellow
A graduate student explains a graph to a colleague		Participants engaging at the poster presentations
Lynne Taylor visits with Alton Johnson		Andrew Vick presents a talk on Biotherapeutics
Stephen Byrn lectures on Solid State Chemistry		Attendees socializing during the Reception at the Ross Ade Pavilion Shively Club
Henry Havel, Candice Kissinger, Edward Kerns and Mary Stickelmeyer sharing some thoughts		Graduate students networking
Peers catching up		Delightful Conference Banquet at the Ross Ade Pavilion Shively Club
Li Pan introduces Dr. Alton Johnson, Keynote Speaker at PGSRM		Dr. Alton Johnson, Pfizer, delivers the Keynote Address with a special focus on "Globalization of the Pharmaceutical Industry"
Li Pan presents the Keynote Appreciation Award to Dr. Alton Johnson		Gregory T. Knipp, Faculty Advisor for PGSRM, concludes the evening with special remarks
The conference concludes with a Scientific Career Panel hosted by Profs. John Nine and Frank Brown, Jr.		PGSRM 2009 Organizing Committee