The University of Florida annually recognizes outstanding young alumni with its 40 Gators Under 40 awards. In 2023, Bhargava Kandala, Ph.D., M.S., was honored based on his contributions professionally and to his community.
Kandala, Ph.D., serves as a director in the quantitative pharmacology, pharmacometrics group at Merck. He leads a talented group of scientists geared toward driving model-informed decision-making in developing novel drugs and vaccines for infectious diseases. Kandala received his M.S. in Statistics and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Science from University of Florida in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Since joining Merck in 2014, he has successfully applied quantitative approaches in developing safe and efficacious drugs and vaccines for various diseases, including diabetes, HIV and COVID-19. He has contributed to the clinical pharmacology and pharmacometrics field with publications in several high-impact journals such as Lancet eBioMedicine, Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. Kandala is also an active member of professional societies such as the International Society of Pharmacometrics and the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. He has been an invited speaker and has chaired sessions at multiple meetings. He also serves as the chair of the American Conference for Pharmacometrics Abstract Committee. Kandala enjoys mentoring students in data science and model-informed drug development and holds an adjunct faculty appointment within the department of pharmaceutics in the UF College of Pharmacy.