Jatinder Lamba, Ph.D., M.Sc., a professor of pharmacotherapy and translational research and the Frank A. Duckworth Eminent Scholar Chair in the UF College of Pharmacy, was appointed the new associate dean for research and graduate education on March 1. She takes over for Maureen Keller-Wood, Ph.D., a professor of pharmacodynamics, who plans to retire this summer.
Lamba is uniquely qualified for the role, as she has built a highly successful research program focused on designing better treatment strategies to improve outcomes for acute myeloid leukemia patients. In her career, she has secured nearly $11 million in funding and authored more than 115 publications. She has also served as the graduate coordinator for her department from 2015-22. Lamba has mentored postdocs, graduate students, Pharm.D. students and hematology-oncology fellows, and many of her trainees have secured positions in academia and industry.
Since 2015, Keller-Wood had served as associate dean for research and graduate education. When she accepted the job, the college ranked No. 11 nationally in total research funding with about $14 million secured annually. Keller-Wood oversaw an era of incredible growth as an influx of new research faculty hires pushed the college into the upper echelons of the national research rankings. The UF College of Pharmacy currently ranks No. 3 nationally in total research funding with more than $32 million earned last year. At the same time, the college’s graduate programs have welcomed a record number of Ph.D. and residential master’s students to campus.
Keller-Wood has also made a significant impact on the department of pharmacodynamics. She served as department chair from 2002-17 and returned to the role in 2021 as an interim chair. Her contributions to the field of maternal-fetal medicine include more than 100 publications, and she built a research program that was continuously funded for four decades by federal agencies and the American Heart Association.