Willis G. Gregory Memorial Award

Dean of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), Giacomini is a world-renowned scientist in the field of membrane transporters and widely recognized for her work in transporter genomics and pharmacogenomics. Her research led to the discovery of the molecular identity and functional roles of transporters in the Solute Carrier superfamily including SLC22A1 (Organic cation transporter 1) and SLC28A2 (Concentrative nucleoside transporter 2) and the orphan transporters, SLC22A15, and SLC22A24.

She is a professor of bioengineering and therapeutic sciences in the UCSF School of Pharmacy, a department she chaired for more than 10 years. In her long career at UCSF, which began in 1982 when she joined the faculty as an assistant professor, Giacomini has been an active mentor to pharmacy students and graduate students. She is also a champion for women and underrepresented groups in science.

Giacomini earned the Volwiler Research Achievement Award – the highest research award given by the American Association of College of Pharmacy – and the Distinguished Pharmaceutical Scientist Award, a lifetime achievement award that recognizes individuals for their contributions to the pharmaceutical sciences. She is one of the few pharmacy-trained elected members of the National Academy of Medicine.

Giacomini co-founded the International Transporter Consortium, which has published impactful manuscripts informing clinical pharmacology and regulatory policy. She is a past president of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and inaugural president of the Pharmacogenomics Research Network. She was the leader of the NIH Pharmacogenomics of Membrane Transporter Center, which was widely recognized as the leading research unit in the world for the discovery, functional characterization, and clinical relevance of polymorphisms in drug transporters.

Currently, Giacomini is the Co-Principal Investigator of the UCSF-Stanford Center of Excellence in Regulatory Sciences and Innovation (CERSI), a major center funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration with the goal of advancing scientific issues related to the safe and effective use of medical products.

As a member and chair of the UCSF Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on the Status of Women, she helped lead and develop parental leave policies for the campus. Giacomini champions issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. She received the Chancellor’s Award for the Advancement of Women, and the Martin Luther King Award at UCSF.

The Willis G. Gregory Memorial Award bears the name of our school's fourth dean and is given annually to an outstanding alumni pharmacist who personifies the ideals of service, integrity, and who, in the eyes of his or her associates, personifies the profession of pharmacy. This is the Alumni Association's most prestigious award.

The recipient must be an alumni pharmacist and hold a degree from the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Nominees should be considered based on their exemplary, longstanding, professional service; longstanding contributions within:  pharmacy organizations, the University at Buffalo and the community; and unique achievements, discoveries, creations and other contributions to society and continued leadership of the profession of pharmacy.

Please Note: Current faculty members are ineligible for nomination

Nominations for 2024 Alumni Awards are now closed.