The Order of Arete Award is award-

ed to graduating students who

demonstrated significant depth and

scope of responsibility in leadership

roles benefitting their peers and

their broader communities.

Recipient: Dabrick Brill (PSCI Pro-

gram, Dr. Haworth, advisor).

Recipient: Charles Caldwell (CXPT

Program, Dr. Cadenas, advisor).

Charles was also awarded the “Ron

Alkana Outstanding Doctoral Schol-

ar Award” at the Graduation Cele-

bration on May 9, 2018.

Student Awards from the

Graduation Celebration on

May 9, 2018!

Wei-Han Wendy Cheng (HLEC

Program, Dr. Lakdawalla, advisor)

received the Outcomes Research

Award.

Jordan Despanie (PSCI Program,

Dr. MacKay, advisor) received the

Dean’s Innovation Award.

Siyu Lindsay Liu (CXPT Program,

Dr. Louie, advisor) received the

Translational Research Award.

Johannes van Dijk (PSCI pro-

gram; Dr. Wang, advisor) received

CONGRATULATIONS NEWS

Congratulations Class of 2018 USC School of Pharmacy Graduates!

On Friday, May 11th the USC School of Pharmacy Commencement Ceremony was in the Broad lawn.

Jordan Despanie (PSCI program; Dr. Andrew Mackay, advisor) was the Graduate Programs

Student Representative for the 2018 Commencement Ceremony.

Pictured are the Class of 2018 PhD Graduates (from left to right): Siyu Lindsay Liu (CXPT), Yiwei Yvette

Wang (CXPT), Cho-Han Lee (PMEP), Sean Hsuan-Yao Wang PSCI), Zhe Li (PSCI), Yu Jeong Kim

(PSCI) Xue Han (HLEC), Darshan Mehta (HLEC), Dabrick Brill (PSCI), Johannes van Dijk (MPTX),

Jillian Romsdahl (MPTX), Kevin Tzu-Shyang Lin (PSCI), Jordan Despanie (PSCI).

Absent: Charles Caldwell (CXPT), Maunil Desai (CXPT), Yuqian Liu (PSCI), Wei-Han Wendy Cheng (HLEC), Yuchen Ding (HLEC), Andy Nguyen

(HLEC), Ning Ning (HLEC), Kinpritma Sandha (HLEC), Roxanna Seyedin (HLEC), and Yifan Xu (HLEC).

Best TA and RA Certificates were presented at the End of Year Luncheon Celebration!

Each year the Pharmacy Graduate Alliance (PGA) Board organizes the End of Year Luncheon

Celebration to celebrate the Class of 2018 Graduates and announce the Best Teaching Assistant (TA)

and Research Assistant (RA) Recipients.

Pictured are the Best TA and RA Recipients (from left to right): Michelle Grau (Best RA, MPTX), Tianyi

Lu (Best RA, HLEC), Siyu Lindsay Liu (Best RA, CXPT), Shruti Singh Kakan (Best TA, MPTX), Anh

Truong (Best TA, PSCI). Absent: Elmar Aliyer (Best TA, HLEC), Yuqian Liu (Best RA, PSCI), Alicia

Warnecke (Best TA, CXPT).

School of Pharmacy Graduate Program Award Recipients from the Annual Alumni Award Gala!

On Sunday, April 29th the USC School of Pharmacy Alumni Association honored outstanding leaders who have made

significant contributions to the pharmacy profession. PSCI alumnus Dr. Jason Jiansheng Wan (PSCI Program, Dr. Wei

-Chiang Shen, advisor) received the Research Achievement Award. Dr. Wan is currently CEO of Sinotherapeutics,

Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company located in Shanghai, China that focuses on developing genetic products.

Pictured on the left are Dr. Jason Jiansheng Wan and Dr. Wei-Chiang Shen (left to right).

This year the Alumni Awards Gala also featured awards to current

USC students that “inspire others to study and show exemplary

leadership and service.” The Inspire Award student honorees are

pictured on the right (Left to Right): Sandy On (PharmD Program), Craig Luis (PharmD Program),

Jeremy Dow (PharmD Program), Adam Roeder (HDCA Program), Dean Papadopoulos, Amanda Chron

(PharmD/PSCI Program), Eric Lee (RegSci Program), and Larry Rodriguez (PSCI Program). Absent: Si

Xuan (HLEC Program).

Pharmacy Graduate Alliance (PGA) corner

2018-2019 PGA Board Members Announced!

The 2018-2019 PGA Board members include: Hugo Avila (President), Aida Kouhi (Vice-President), Xiaojing Shi and Ada Blachowicz (Treasurers); Shruti

Singh Kakan (Secretary); Michelle Grau (Senator); Zhiyuan Yao (PPSI Representative); Yue Zhang (MPTX Representative); Larry Rodriguez (CXPT

Representative); Julianna Chen (RegSci Representative); and Elmar Aliyev (HLEC Representative). If you would like to contact the PGA Board, please

email pga@usc.edu.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The School of Pharmacy 3 Minute Thesis (SOP 3MT) competition: The SOP 3MT is a competition where each student delivers an

“elevator pitch” or a short summary used to quickly and simply relay their research project and its value, delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for

this competition, in 3 minutes). An effective elevator pitch is designed to get the attention of a potential funder or employer so that he/she wants to learn

more. The concept of the three minute thesis is based upon an international competition in which PhD students are challenged to present their work to a

broad audience in 3 minutes. The SOP 3MT Competition is a 2-day event:

Friday, June 15 in PSC 104-The Art of the Pitch, (8-11:00am - open to all students/postdocs) RSVP REQUIRED: https://goo.gl/forms/hEHsSdID9jaLTluw1. Practice and individual feedback from the coach (11am-5pm - for only the top 16 applicants; apply to phargrad@usc.edu)

Wed, June 27 in PSC 104 - Competition Day for the top 16 participants from 12-2 pm. The top 3 contestants will receive a monetary prize up to $300!

Applications are due Wednesday, May 30 at phargrad@usc.edu. For more information about the SOP 3MT please email Liz.aguiniga@usc.edu.

UPCOMING EVENTS

TGS Summer Fellowship Boot Camp, August 1-10: The 10-day intensive writing workshop is designed for PhD students who will be

applying for the National Science Foundation, Graduate Research Fellowship Program or the Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship. Participants

receive a $1,000 stipend for housing and other expenses while attending the boot camp. In addition, participants who submit a complete application to one

of the identified fellowships in fall 2018 or fall 2019 may be eligible for a travel or research award of up to $1,000. Applications are due in early June. More

info about Boot Camp can be found at: http://graduateschool.usc.edu/fellowships/external-fellowships/#boot-camp.

Moving Targets Symposium, Friday, August 17, 9am-5pm: This year the Annual Moving Targets Symposium will focus on combating

the opioid crisis from an interdisciplinary perspective covering policy, clinical care, and breakthroughs in drug-discovery. The Symposium will feature Dr.

Kim Janda, who is working on a antinheroine vaccine; Dr. Brian Schoichet, who is working on developing an opioid product with reduced addictive

potential; Dr. Steven Doberstein, who is also developing an altered opioid product; Dr. Rosalie Pacula, who studies the effectiveness of policy interventions

aimed at combating illicit drug behaviors; and Dr. Melissa Durham, who will speak from the perspective of a pharmacist in a clinical setting. There will be a

poster session, which is open to all students in all fields of research. Abstracts must be submitted by Friday, August, 10 for consideration into the poster

session. For more information about Moving Targets or to submit your abstract to go http://www.movingtargets.la/.

Student Seminars (Wednesdays at noon in PSC-104):

May 23: Adriana Blachowicz (PSCI, Wang lab) May 30: Runzhong Fu (PSCI, Hamm-Alvarez lab)

June 6: Santosh Peddi (PSCI, MacKay lab) June 13: Yaping Ju (PSCI, Hamm-Alvarez lab)

June 20: Taojian Tu (PSCI, Stiles lab) June 27: SOP 3MT Competition

USC School of Pharmacy Office of Research and Graduate Programs Associate Dean: Annie Wong-Beringer, PharmD Newsletter Editor: Liz Aguiniga, PhD; Contributors: Rosie Soltero, Wade Thompson-Harper Photo credit: Isaac Mora (Media Dept.), Michele Keller, Director of Communications and Marketing Email: PHARgrad@usc.edu Website: https://pharmgradprograms.usc.edu/ 1985 Zonal Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90089 (323) 442–1474