Wei Zhang, graduate student in the lab of Lian Yu, professor in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Division, was awarded the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Graduate Student Research Award in Physical Pharmacy and Biopharmaceutics (PPB) at the October AAPS meeting.

Zhang’s research topic, “Surface diffusion of amorphous solids: Material dependence and its importance in fast surface crystal growth,” demonstrated that fast surface mobility causes fast surface crystal growth of amorphous drugs, which leads to a root instability issue in amorphous formulations.

Zhang was selected from an international applicant pool and was one of only two students to receive the award from the AAPS PPB section. Zhang was recognized during the opening session and also did a poster presentation at the PPB section reception at the meeting held October 25-29 in Orlando, Florida. The award sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb recognizes the contribution from a PhD researcher to the field of PPB.