Palmer Taylor, BS ’60, PhD ’65, is the recipient of the 2017 AACP Volwiler Research Achievement Award. Established as the research prize in academic pharmacy to honor the late Ernest H. Volwiler, former president and research director of Abbott Laboratories, the annual award selects an individual within the ranks of pharmacy education recognized by his or her peers as one of the leading research workers in a given area of the pharmaceutical and clinical sciences, pharmacy practice and the social and administrative sciences, and for outstanding contributions to the respective disciplines

Taylor received his pharmacy degree and licensure, and subsequent PhD from Wisconsin. His father and grandfather owned two pharmacies in Stevens Point. While he enjoyed the professional practice, he was not attracted to the merchandising and mercantilism required in family-owned pharmacies. Accordingly he embarked in graduate studies in physical pharmacy, now called pharmaceutics, studying crystal growth and dissolution with Dale Wurster.

Taylor credits then dean Arthur Uhl, in assembling and recruiting an internationally distinguished faculty in pharmaceutical sciences. The faculty included: Wurster, Tak Higuchi, Charles Sih, Ed Smissman, Joe Cannon, Morris Kupchan, Ken Connors, Stewart Eriksen, Bill Higuchi, Joe Swintosky, and August Lemberger. These people went on to hold leadership positions at Wisconsin and several other pharmacy schools. Taylor notes that it was these creative faculty, along with others that attracted talented students and fellows from around the world to Madison. They, too, became leaders in academia and the industry and participated in the expansion of the scope of pharmacy practice.

Taylor went on to do post-doctoral studies in pharmacology at the NIH and then in molecular pharmacology with Sir Arnold Burgen in Cambridge England. He then accepted a position at a new School of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego in 1971. He served as chair of its first Department of Pharmacology and more recently as Founding Dean at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences at UC, San Diego. In formulating the curriculum at UC, San Diego, Taylor relied heavily on volunteer efforts of colleagues at Madison, Eli Shefter and the late Arthur Mlodozeniec; NIH, Tom Tozer and clinical faculty from UCSF practicing at UC, San Diego, David Adler and Anthony Mannoguerra.

Taylor remarks that the Badger influence in pharmaceutical research and academic pharmacy is indeed well recognized on the Pacific rim.

Ernest Volwiler was a chemist and director of research and then CEO at Abbott Laboratories for many years. Volwiler was the developer of nembutal and thiopental as pharmaceuticals and oversaw the development and commercialization of several antimicrobials for Abbott. The award consists of a gold medal and monetary prize. Taylor was formally recognized at the AACP annual meeting in July in Nashville, Tenn.