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Award Description

The primary goal of this award is to promote participation in the ASPET Annual Meeting by pharmacology educators and to foster career development in pharmacology education.

Pharmacology educators are invited to apply for a Pharmacology Educators Award to help defray the costs of attending the ASPET Annual Meeting. The awards are designed to support attendance at the meeting and ASPET DPE activities, so winners will be strongly encouraged to submit educational symposium proposals for future meetings as well as to actively participate in future ASPET DPE activities.

Award Details

The award is presented annually at the Division for Pharmacology Education annual business meeting. The award consists of:

  • A commemorative plaque
  • Reimbursement of up to $1,000 of registration and approved travel expenses for the winner to attend the ASPET Annual Meeting. 

Application Criteria and Process

  • There are no restrictions on faculty rank.
  • Applicant must have significant teaching responsibilities in the area of pharmacology.
  • Applicant must be a member in good standing of ASPET.
  • Preference is given to applicants who hold primary or secondary membership in the Division for Pharmacology Education.
  • Applications for two types of awards will be considered; one to an Early Career candidate and one to a Senior candidate. An applicant will be considered an early career candidate if they have relatively less experience as a pharmacology educator and/or are a junior faculty member (e.g., Assistant Professor). All other applicants will be considered as Senior Candidates.
  • Areas of teaching responsibilities in pharmacology can include instruction in graduate and undergraduate college classes as well as professional schools.
  • In addition to curriculum delivery, preference will be given to the applicant demonstrating efforts in creative aspects of pharmacology education, e.g., curricula design, assessment, and faculty development.
  • Strong preference will be given to applicants who submit an education-related abstract to the upcoming ASPET annual meeting as this is part of the rubric for scoring applicants. The criteria are specific to pharmacology educational scholarship so applicants submitting only a basic science pharmacology abstract will not be scored highly for this criteria.
  • The current division chair and secretary/treasurer and the ASPET Council president and secretary/treasurer are ineligible for division awards during their active tenure.

How to Apply

Access the Awards Portal to Submit Applications or Nominations and to Review Submissions

Apply Now

Applications shall be submitted using the ASPET Awards Portal by logging in to the application box above.

Applications shall consist of:

    1. Curriculum vitae (please highlight education related accomplishments) – to be uploaded as a PDF
    2. Applicant Statement and Supportive Materials addressing Sections A and B listed below – to be uploaded as a single PDF
    3. Names and email addresses for at least one but no more than three references to provide letters of support
    4. Abstract title and draft abstract planned for submission to the ASPET annual meeting (abstract submission is not required but preference is given to abstract submitters)
    5. A brief biographical summary of the candidate and the importance of their work for use in award winner announcements (in no more than 150 words.)

Applicant's Statement and Supportive Materials

Section A. Applicant's Statement (limited to 2,000 words) Applicants may wish to address the following in their statement:

  1. Describe the breadth and extent of your teaching experiences in pharmacology education.
    • What are goals for pharmacology education of the instructional unit(s) in which you currently participate?
    • What role do you play in establishing and meeting these goals? That is, describe your involvement in preparation and delivery of undergraduate, graduate, and/or professional school curricula.
    • Discuss your perception of the importance of your educational endeavors in pharmacology education to the mission of the educational unit.
     
  2. Indicate the type of teaching strategies and materials that you use or have implemented. For example, describe how student aids are used to meet the needs of the educational unit and the students.
  3. Describe self-improvement strategies that you have developed. For example, describe how you use student feedback and peer evaluation to alter course content, educational perspective, and strategy. Be sure to indicate participation in educational workshops and courses to improve their educational efforts.
  4. Describe how your innovations in pharmacology education have influenced the educational environment(s) in your or other educational endeavors.
  5. Describe what you hope to gain from attendance at the ASPET meeting. What contributions do you envision bringing to pharmacology education during your career?

Section B. Applicant's Supportive Materials - May include but not be limited to:

  1. Positive teaching evaluations from colleagues and students
  2. Examples of academic efforts in pharmacology education, e.g., presentations, abstracts, and papers.
  3. Please do NOT attach non-evaluative materials, such as lesson plans or presentation materials.

Notes about Letters of Reference

In the online application form, you will need to provide the full names and email addresses for those who will be providing you letters of reference. After you submit your application, the online system will automatically email your references giving them the option to type in or upload their letter into the system. All comments will be kept confidential.

You are strongly encouraged to alert your references in advance that their letters will be required by Monday, September 19, 2022. They will not receive their personal link to upload their letters until you finish submission of your own application or you use the "Send Request Now" button. Your portion of the application is due by Thursday, September 15, 2022.

Below are the guidelines they will receive. You are encouraged to share these with them in advance.

Instructions for References

In order to evaluate candidates for the Pharmacology Educators Award, you have been requested to provide a letter of support highlighting your knowledge of the applicant as a pharmacology educator. Please provide your opinion of the applicant's teaching expertise, educational innovations, contributions to goals of educational units in which they participate, and benefits that attending an ASPET meeting would offer to the applicant's career in pharmacology education. In preparing your recommendation, you may wish to consider topics listed below:

  1. Breadth and extent of the applicant's participation in pharmacology education
  2. Value of the applicant's educational endeavors in pharmacology education (If possible, provide positive student and faculty feedback evaluation.)
  3. Extent of use and effectiveness of student teaching aids
  4. Applicant's self-improvement strategies (Use of student feedback and peer evaluations, and participation in educational workshops.)
  5. Influence of innovations by the applicant on their educational environment

If any of the following relationships exist between the nominator and the candidate, you are encouraged to disclose it in your letter of nomination:  family member, spouse, partner; current dean, departmental chair, or postdoctoral or graduate advisor; current business or financial relationship (e.g., business partner, employer, employee); research collaborator or co-author within the last three years; work at the same institution or having accepted a position at the same institution; previous graduate student or postdoctoral fellow in the last five years; or if either are currently serving on the award selection committee for this award.

Application Deadline

Closed for 2023

Past Recipients

2010Leah Fink, Margaret Scofield
2011Senthil Rajasekaran, M. Chandra Sekar
2012Kelly Karpa, Jayne S. Reuben
2013Kim Eberle-Wang, Laurel Gorman, Michelle M. Duffourc
2014Mark Hernandez, Abu-Bakr Al-Mehdi
2015Diane M. Calinski, Rochelle D. Schwartz-Bloom
2016Katharina Brandl, Dovenia Ponnoth
2017Ashim Malhotra, Helen Kwanashie 
2018Willmann Liang, Diptiman D. Bose, James J. O’Donnell
2019Gagani Athauda, Ashley N. Guillory, Arun Ram
2020Khalil Eldeeb, Stanley V. Smith, Rupa Lalchandani Tuan
2021Islam N. Mohamed, Jennelle Durnett Richardson
2022Lauren Aleksunes Sarah Lerchenfeldt and Monzurul Roni
2023Ricardo Pena Silva, Nicholas Denton and Rheaclare Fraser-Spears



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