The University of Florida College of Pharmacy has awarded three prestigious fellowship awards to fourth-year graduate students in the college. Ariana Brice-Tutt and Lisa Wilson, M.S., from department of pharmacodynamics, and Karthik Lingineni, M.S., from the department of pharmaceutics, were honored at a virtual award ceremony Oct. 13.
Brice-Tutt was presented the Robert and Stephany Ruffolo Graduate Education and Research Fellowship. Robert Ruffolo, Ph.D., is a pharmacologist and former president of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. He holds the patent for the discovery of carvedilol, a top 50 drug in the U.S. used to treat high blood pressure and heart failure. The Ruffolo’s fellowship award is given annually and supports the advancement of graduate student training in the pharmaceutical sciences.
Wilson received the inaugural Bonnie Avery Advancing Women in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Endowment Award, which supports female Ph.D. students in the pharmaceutical sciences. The award recognizes the late Bonnie Avery, Ph.D., a clinical professor of pharmaceutics in the UF College of Pharmacy, who passed away in 2019. Avery was passionate about helping women advance their science career.
Lingineni was honored with the Ronald J. and Sally G. Brenner Fellowship. Ron Brenner earned a master’s degree from the UF College of Pharmacy in 1957 and a Ph.D. in 1959. In the 1990s, he created The Ronald J. Brenner, Ph.D. Graduate Student Fellowship to support graduate student education and research in the college. In Ron’s legacy, Sally Brenner is still active with the college and keeps growing his endowment legacy.