About Karl H. Beyer, Jr. (1914–1996) 

Dr. Karl Beyer received his bachelor's degree from Western Kentucky State College and his doctoral degree in Physiology and medical degree from the University of Wisconsin. Upon graduation, he joined Sharpe and Dohme as assistant director of pharmacological research. After Sharpe and Dohme merged with Merck, Dr. Beyer became president of the Merck Institute of Therapeutic Research and subsequently senior vice president for research at Merck, Sharpe and Dohme. Following his retirement in 1973, Dr. Beyer became visiting professor of Pharmacology at Hershey Medical Center and served as a scholar-in-residence at the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Beyer was an early proponent of the concept of team-based drug discovery, as detailed in his book "The Discovery, Development and Delivery of New Drugs." He was largely responsible for the discovery of the thiazide class of diuretics, particularly chlorothiazide (Diuril®) and hydrocholorothiazide (HydroDiuril®). He is also credited with the discovery and development of probenecid, the first universally accepted drug for the treatment of gout. Dr. Beyer had over 190 publications and more than 20 patents. His contributions to pharmacology were recognized by his receipt of the Merck Scientific Award, the Gairdiner Foundation Award, the Albert Lasker Special Award, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association Drug Discoveries Award, and ASPET's prestigious Torald Sollman Award.

In addition to his contributions to drug discovery, Dr. Beyer served pharmacology as president of ASPET from 1964–1965 and president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) from 1965–1966. He was also an editor of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics from 1966–1984. In recognition of Dr. Beyer's outstanding contributions to pharmacology, a memorial fund was established in his name at ASPET to be used to fund graduate student travel to the annual meeting. This fund provides travel awards to the ASPET Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology for graduate students in any discipline of pharmacology.

This fund is used to provide travel awards for young scientists to attend the ASPET Annual Meeting.Donate



About Steven E. Mayer (1929–2010) 

Dr. Steven Mayer was born in Frankfurt, Germany, the only child of Ernst and Irmgard Mayer. In 1938, he and his mother barely escaped the Holocaust by immigrating to the Netherlands and then to the U.S. where they joined his father in Chicago and subsequently became U.S. citizens. Dr. Mayer received his bachelor of science and his bachelor of arts degrees with honors from the University of Chicago and his doctoral degree from the University of Illinois. He served in the Public Health Service at the National Institutes of Health and then moved to Washington University in St. Louis. In 1957, he joined the Department of Pharmacology at Emory University and remained there until 1969 when he moved to the University of California, San Diego, as professor of medicine and director of the division of pharmacology. In 1985, Dr. Mayer relocated to Vanderbilt University as a visiting professor in pharmacology and remained there until his retirement in 1995.

During his long and distinguished academic and scientific career, Dr. Mayer's research on fat and cardiac muscle metabolism was recognized internationally for its innovation and rigor. Dr. Mayer received many honors in his lifetime, including the John Jacob Abel Award from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET). He was president of ASPET from 1977–1978 and editor of Molecular Pharmacology from 1971–1974. Dr. Mayer was an associate editor of Goodman and Gilman’s Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics.

In recognition of Dr. Mayer’s very significant contributions to the field of pharmacology and his devoted service to ASPET, his family established a memorial fund at ASPET to fund graduate student travel to the annual meeting. This fund provides travel awards to the ASPET Annual Meeting for graduate students in any discipline of pharmacology. Donate



About Akira E. Takemori (1929–1998) 

Dr. Akira Takemori spent his early teenage years during World War II in an interment camp with other Japanese Americans. After the war, he received his undergraduate degree in physiology from the University of California at Berkeley, his master's degree in comparative pharmacology and toxicology at the University of California, San Francisco, and his doctoral degree in pharmacology from the University of Wisconsin. Following postdoctoral training at the Enzyme Institute at the University of Wisconsin, he took a faculty position in pharmacology at the State University of New York at Syracuse. In 1961, he moved to the University of Minnesota from which he retired in 1994 as a Professor.

Dr. Takemori was a leading researcher in the field of opioids and their receptors. He and his associates demonstrated that different opioid receptors were involved in mediating analgesia, respiratory depression, gastrointestinal transit, and hyperthermia. He established that receptor sensitivity alternation occurred after tolerance development and showed that the analgesic action of K receptor opioid agonists in the brain activated descending serotonergic pathways to the spinal cord. For his work in developing opioid antagonists with different selectivity for various receptors, Dr. Takemori shared the Nathan B. Eddy Award for distinguished contributions in drug dependence.

Dr. Takemori served on numerous review groups for NIH. He was president of ASPET from 1992–1993 and served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and Annual Reviews of Pharmacology and Toxicology. In recognition of his contributions to pharmacology, Dr. Takemori's family established a memorial fund at ASPET to fund travel to the annual meeting for young scientists who are pursuing research in whole animal pharmacology or who are from less well endowed institutions. Donate



About Atul & Jayashree Laddu 

Dr. Atul Laddu was born in Pune (formerly Poona), India and received his MD from G. R. Medical College, Gwalior, India (1962) and PhD from Delhi University (1967). He married Jayashree Laddu (nee Dabadghao) in 1965, and came to the U.S. in 1968 as a postdoctoral fellow conducting research in cardiovascular pharmacology in the department of Pharmacology at the Medical College of Wisconsin (formerly Marquette Medical School), working under the guidance of Pitambar Somani, MD, PhD and Harold F. Hardman, PhD, MD, the then Chairman of the department of Pharmacology.  Dr. Laddu has given grand rounds at the Department of Cardiology at Veterans Hospital, Fargo, ND and in the Department of Urology at the University of Michigan.  In 1976, Dr. Laddu moved to clinical research and was employed at several pharmaceutical companies including Abbott Laboratories, Dupont Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly and Company and Solvay Pharmaceuticals.  During this time, he was responsible for getting drugs including abciximab (Reopro), acebutolol (Sectral), esmolol (Brevibloc), estazolam, terazosin (Hytrin), valproic Acid (Depakote) approved by the FDA and bringing them to market.

Dr. Laddu has had a life-long interest in both pre-clinical and clinical research and has authored more than 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Between 1965 and 2006, Dr. Laddu served on the Editorial Boards of American Heart Journal, Headache, Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, and International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology (Associate Editor) 

In 2011, Dr. Laddu founded Georgia Thrombosis Forum (GTF), an organization with a mission to increase awareness of thrombosis throughout local communities. Based on his work in the community, he was awarded the highest state award for community service by Georgia Governor Nathan Deal in January 2016. In addition, Dr. Laddu also mentors students who attend Harvard Medical School and Loyola University as interns, coaching them on how to conduct research, write, speak, and make presentations.

Research and teaching is Dr. Laddu’s passion, and he and his wife have initiated the Atul & Jayashree Laddu ASPET Travel Award to encourage young scientists to participate in research and present their findings at the ASPET meetings. This fund provides travel awards to the ASPET Annual Meeting for young scientists in any discipline of pharmacology. Donate



About Nancy Rutledge Zahniser (1948–2016) 

Dr. Nancy Rutledge Zahniser was born in Chillicothe, Ohio. She received her bachelor of arts degree in chemistry from the College of Wooster in Ohio and her doctoral degree in pharmacology from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Zahniser did her postdoctoral training at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (UCHSC). Afterwards, Dr. Zahniser was hired as an instructor by the UCHSC Department of Pharmacology and eventually became full professor with tenure in 1991. Dr. Zahniser also held concurrent faculty appointments in the neuroscience program and the medical student training program at the UC School of Medicine.

Dr. Zahniser’s research focused on better understanding the brain neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) and the addictive drugs that alter its function. She was the first to demonstrate that DA receptor binding is influenced by guanine nucleotides and that release-regulating presynaptic D2 DA autoreceptors exist on rat striatal neurons. Dr. Zahniser was also a major contributor to the literature describing how these DA autoreceptors and the DA transporter (DAT) were altered by repeated cocaine exposure. Dr. Zahniser’s research was continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Dr. Zahniser was thoroughly committed to helping both graduate students and postdoctoral trainees advance their own careers. Together, they published over 150 papers, reviews and book chapters. In addition to her contributions to neuropharmacology, Dr. Zahniser received many honors in her lifetime, including the 2014 Award in Excellence in Pharmacology/ Toxicology from the PhRMA Foundation. Dr. Zahniser was on the editorial boards of Pharmacological Communications, CNS Neuroscience and Therapeutics and the Journal of Neuroscience Methods. She served as ASPET Secretary–Treasurer in 2001–2002.

In recognition of Dr. Zahniser’s outstanding contributions to the field of pharmacology, a memorial fund to support student travel to the ASPET Annual Meeting was established by an anonymous donor.Donate