UB Pharmacy Alumni Association announces 2019 award winners

Lee Vermeulen, BS ’90, is the recipient of the 2019 Willis G. Gregory Memorial Award. The award is the most prestigious given by the school, honoring an outstanding alumnus who personifies the ideals of service, integrity and leadership in the profession of pharmacy through unique achievements and discoveries.

Vermeulen is Chief of Enterprise Academic Service Lines for UK HealthCare, the University of Kentucky health system. In his executive role, he is responsible for the development and oversight of enterprise-wide academic service lines that horizontally integrate care delivery across age groups, medical and surgical disciplines, settings of care and operational units in a value-based, patient-centered model.

He is also Professor of Medicine and Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky.  His academic work focuses on the development and implementation of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and clinical decision support tools that drive the efficient delivery of high-quality health care. 

He is an active health services researcher with over 80 peer-reviewed publications emphasizing the cost and value of emerging health care trends. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and a Masters in pharmacy administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He completed residency training in pharmacy practice and pharmacy administration at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, and completed a fellowship in medical technology assessment at the University Healthsystem Consortium (now Vizient).

Vermeulen has been awarded Fellowship in the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and International Pharmaceutical Federation, and he is the recipient of the Winston J. Durant Lecture Award and the Donald E. Francke Medal. He is an active member of the International Pharmacy Federation, Hospital Pharmacy Section, currently serving as secretary and a board member. 

Christopher Rubino, PharmD ’96, is the recipient of the 2019 Orville C. Baxter Memorial Professional Practice Award. The award acknowledges leadership within the profession of pharmacy, career innovation and dedication to the school and students.

Rubino is one of three principal founders and the Executive Vice President of Pharmacometrics for the Institute for Clinical Pharmacodynamics (ICPD), which has offices in Buffalo and Schenectady, N.Y. Along with his two partners, Sujata M. Bhavnani and Paul G. Ambrose, he has overseen the growth of ICPD from a small group of PK/PD scientists to its current size of over 30 scientists, programmers and lab technicians. Their work has led to the integration of PK/PD first principles in drug development decision-making, including pioneering the development of the PK-PD Compass®, a tool enabling a shift in how anti-infective agents are selected and dosed–toward patient-centered care through precision medicine.

Rubino is also an adjunct associate research professor at the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

He has served as a resource for pharmaceutical firms during the submission of adult- and pediatric-related filings to the Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency across several therapeutic areas. His experience in this area spans the full breadth of activities from designing studies in adults and children to analysis of PK-PD data from such studies and, ultimately, to presentation at regulatory and international scientific meetings.

He is a member of the International Society of Pharmacometrics and the American Society for Microbiology, and also serves as a member of the Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy Editorial Board and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute Institutional Review Board. He has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and has assisted in refereeing numerous industry journals, including Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Diseases and the Journal of Pediatric Pharmacy Practice.

Rubino received his BS in Pharmacy from the University of Connecticut and completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in pediatric pharmacology at the Women’s Hospital of Greensboro.

Vermeulen and Rubino will be honored at the school's Annual Awards Ceremony on April 11, 2019, at the Center for Tomorrow on UB’s North Campus. The event recognizes outstanding faculty, staff, students and alumni who, over the past year, have contributed significantly to the school's mission, the profession of pharmacy and the pursuit of academic achievements. For a complete list of award winners, visit pharmacy.buffalo.edu/awards.