When Marie Smith (Pharm.D.) isn’t at UConn fulfilling her professor and assistant dean roles, she can be found on a Connecticut legislative workgroup or committee. Advocating for initiatives to improve patient care across the state, Smith is changing health policy to better reflect the needs of her colleagues, neighbors, and students. As a relentless changemaker, Smith’s success is a testament to her ability to transform innovative ideas into meaningful impact.

Two graduate students from UConn Pharmacy, Leila Sharifi and Saeed Najafian, attended the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting in November, where they each received an award. Najafian earned the First Place Academic Award, while Sharifi was honored with the Pharmaceutical Discovery, Development, and Manufacturing (PD2M) Award.

Joining UConn in 2007 as a faculty member, Professor of Pharmaceutics, Bodhisattwa Chaudhuri (Ph.D.), was inducted as a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences (AAPS) at its 2025 PharmSci 360 meeting on November 9th. A testament to his sustained impact in the pharmaceutical sciences, Chaudhuri was one of only eight fellows selected worldwide.

In his final year at the School, Lahar Miriyapalli put his pharmaceutical knowledge and application skills to the test at the National Pharmaceutical Association/Student National Pharmaceutical Association (NPhA/SNPhA) National Convention. Putting himself in the shoes of a medical science liaison and presenting to employees of AstraZeneca, Lahar presented one of their clinical trials professionally and passionately, earning him the first-place award in this skill competition.

An experienced and championed leader in oncology pharmacy, Osama (Sam) Abdelghany (Pharm.D.) was once a student working at a pizza place to afford his UConn education. Nicknamed the “pizza man,” Sam’s dedication to the pharmacy field for the past twenty years is a testament to his tenacity in pursuing his passion for pharmacy.