The College of Pharmacy’s PBS Research Day 2026 is in the books—and it is a best seller!   Members of PBS’s Innovations in Drug Discovery (IDD) collaborative group organized the event, which included several faculty and student presentations, a showcase of 38 student and postdoc posters highlighting innovative research discoveries, and special student awards announced at the end of the one-day program. A keynote address by Dr. Mingji Dai from Emory University featured his natural product total synthesis work related to new reaction development, synthesis of complex probes for target identification efforts related to cancer treatment, and advancing therapeutic leads. According to Dr. Rob Huigens, the lead coordinator for the event, “Research Day was an incredible experience!  I can’t wait until next year!”

Congratulations to the following students and post-docs, who were award recipients.

LaRocca Award: Fredejah T. Royer

Stewart Award: Terry Nguyen

Graduate Student Service Award: Jennifer Lathrop (to improve graduate education in PBS)

TA Award: Angela Bae

Undergraduate Student Award: Paige Koller

Poster Awards:

First place: Dawei Zong

Second place: Samantha Brannen

Third place (tie): Dr. Qiwen Gao, & Dr. Jeremy Coleman