Michael Jay, PhD, has been named the 2014 University of Kentucky Outstanding Graduate Program Alumnus for the Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Jay is the Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor and chair of the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Jay, who received his PhD in pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy in 1980, received the award as part of the College’s annual graduate program recruitment event January 30.
Jay was an assistant professor of nuclear medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center from 1980 to 1981 and then returned to UK as an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry in 1981.
Over twenty-seven years at UK, he rose through the academic ranks to become professor of pharmaceutics and a professor of radiology in the UK College of Medicine. He also served as the director of graduate studies from 1992 to 1998 and director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Science and Technology from 1998 to 2007.
Jay came to the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy in 2008, where he was named the Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor of Molecular Pharmaceutics. He served as director of graduate admissions for the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics until 2012 when he was named division chair.
Jay has received a number of awards, including the Berson-Yalow Award from the Society of Nuclear Medicine, the Mendell Award for Scientific Excellence in Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the Excellence in Pharmaceutical Graduate Education Award from the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Kentucky.
He is also a fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists and the cofounder of Arcato Laboratories, Inc. and Capture Pharmaceuticals, Inc.