Register now for 19th annual Garnet E. Peck Symposium

The 19th Annual Garnet E. Peck Symposium will be held Thursday, April 4, by the Department of Industrial and Molecular Pharmaceutics with support from Akina Inc., IMA Life North America, Pharmaceutical Research Magazine and friends of Dr. Frank Brown Jr. The symposium will be held on the second floor of the France A. Cordova Recreational Center. 

Chaired by IMPH Professor of Practice Nathaniel Milton, the symposium will be themed “Digital Transformation in the Pharmaceutical Industry.” The program will feature presentations by renowned pharmaceutical industry representatives and researchers as well as poster sessions and presentations from graduate students.

The Peck Symposium will include presentations on the latest developments in discovery, data analysis, process development and the application of AI in the pharmaceutical and other industries. There will be a poster session and student thesis competition, in which graduate students will pitch their thesis research to the audience in three minutes or less. Voting will take place to determine first, second and third prize awards of up to $200 in scholarships. 

The event is $25 for individuals with @purdue.edu email address and $300 for all other attendees. Registration is required and will close March 22, or when the conference has reached capacity.

The lunch will be in honor of the late Dr. Frank Brown Jr., who was an outstanding teacher, mentor and friend on the West Lafayette campus for many years.

Brown was a 1964 graduate of Southern University Agricultural and Mechanical College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and earned his PhD in chemistry in 1969 from Purdue University, studying under Dr. Henry Feuer. He had a distinguished career at Eli Lilly and Co. for 32 years and retired in 2000.

After retirement, Brown returned to Purdue and was the Director of the Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences program and an advocate of Multicultural Programs in the Office of Student Services. He was also an adjunct professor in Purdue’s departments of Chemistry and Industrial and Physical Pharmacy.

Presenters are:

• Alina Alexeenko, professor, Purdue University: “Automation and Digitalization for Lyophilization: Trends and Opportunities Identified by the LyoHUB Technology Roadmapping.”
• Gaurav Chopra, associate professor, Purdue University: “Artificially Intelligent Agents for Accelerating Drug Discovery and Development.”
• Sean Ekins, CEO and founder, Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc.: “Applying Artificial Intelligence in a Small Drug Discovery Company.”
• Michael T. Hughes, director of Digital Engineering, Cummins Inc.: “Digital Transformation and Cummins Products.”
• Douglas Kiehl, senior director, DCTO, Digital Twin Center of Excellence, Eli Lilly and Co.: “Exploring the Digital Event Horizon: Enabling Digital Transformation in Pharma through Cross-Collaborative Partnerships.”
• Manuel Sanchez-Felix, VP, Drug Delivery Search and Evaluation, Halozyme Therapeutics: “Industry 4.0 Revolution Meets Pharmaceutical Transformation: Novel Solutions for Pressing Patient Needs.”
• Liang Zhao, director, Division of Quantitative Methods and Modeling, OGD/ORS, Food and Drug Administration: “When Drug Development Meets AI/Large Language Models.”

The event honors the late Garnet E. Peck, professor emeritus of industrial and physical pharmacy, and his contributions to the pharmaceutical sciences, including the development of latex-based tablet coatings that have been used in the industry for more than 35 years.

Symposium details and registration can be found at www.imph.purdue.edu/peck.