Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, conferred an honorary doctorate upon Robert A. “Bob” Blouin, dean of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, on May 25.
Blouin is also the Vaughn and Nancy Bryson Distinguished Professor at the School and serves as the director of the Eshelman Institute for Innovation, which pursues high-risk, high-reward ideas that advance innovation in education, research and health care.
The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy is a partner of the Monash Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences’ in PharmAlliance, a groundbreaking collaboration in research and education between three of the world’s top schools of pharmacy. The third partner is University College London.
Bill Charman, Ph.D., dean of Monash Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, praised Blouin’s contributions to education and research in the field.
“Dean Blouin has played a leading role in shaping the modern idea of what it means to be a world-leading school of pharmacy,” Charman said. “His international outlook and relentless pursuit of excellence have benefited his institution, our profession, our field of education and research, and patients around the world.”
“We sincerely congratulate him upon his achievement and are extremely proud to call him a friend of Monash,” he said.
During Blouin’s 14-year tenure at UNC, the School has experienced unprecedented growth in its research, education and global-engagement programs and is recognized as one of the premier pharmacy programs in the world.
- The faculty has grown by nearly 75 percent.
- The number of graduate students has grown by nearly 50 percent.
- Total research funding has increased from $2.2 million in 2002 to $36.3 million in 2016, second among the nation’s pharmacy schools.
- The School has doubled its physical space by expanding into two new research buildings.
- Nine research centers have been created to advance pharmacy and pharmaceutical education, practice and research with the most recent being the Center for Innovation in Pharmacy Education and Research.
- U.S. News & World Report ranked the School number one in 2016.
Blouin also delivered the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences’ annual public lecture, the Professor Barry L Reed Distinguished Lecture, on May 29 at Monash.
Blouin has received many honors, including designation as the University of Tennessee’s First Tennessee Chair of Excellence Distinguished Visiting Professor, the Ohio State Milap Nahata Distinguished Lecturer Award, the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy Hall of Distinguished Alumni Award and the University of North Carolina General Alumni Association Faculty Service Award. He has been elected as a fellow of both the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.
Prior to coming to UNC, Blouin spent 25 years at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy as a faculty member and administrator, last serving as professor and associate dean for research and graduate education from 1997 to 2003.