Lokhandwala Lecture & Research Convocation - University of Houston
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College of Pharmacy
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2024 Lokhandwala Lecture TBA

The Lokhandwala Lecture and Research Convocation is UH College of Pharmacy’s first college-wide research conference. The main objective of the event is to encourage collaboration and synergy in pursuit of scientific innovation and discovery across all three departments – Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmacy Practice and Translational Research, and Pharmaceutical Health Outcomes and Policy.

The lecture and convocation serves as a platform for multidirectional integration of basic, clinical, and population-based research conducted by faculty and students to enhance the intellectual experience, and professional and academic development. In addition to keynote addresses by renowned nationally and internationally recognized scientists, the event will showcase the latest UHCOP research to a broader audience, including TED Talks presented by UHCOP graduate students.

The lecture and convocation honors the contributions of Professor Emeritus Mustafa F. Lokhandwala, Ph.D., FAHA, FASN, as a faculty, department chair, executive vice-dean, and dean for nearly five decades of service at UH.

Dr. Peter Hotez

About Dr. Hotez

Peter J. Hotez, M.D., Ph.D., is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine where he is also the co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) and Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair of Tropical Pediatrics. 

Dr. Hotez is an internationally recognized physician-scientist in neglected tropical diseases and vaccine development. As co-director of the Texas Children’s CVD, he leads a team and product development partnership for developing new vaccines for hookworm infection, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, and SARS/MERS/SARS-2 coronavirus, diseases affecting hundreds of millions of children and adults worldwide, while championing access to vaccines globally and in the U.S. 

In December 2021, Dr. Hotez led efforts at the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development to develop a low-cost recombinant protein COVID vaccine for global health, resulting in emergency use authorization in India. In 2022, Hotez and his colleague Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for "their work to develop and distribute a low-cost COVID-19 vaccine to people of the world without patent limitation."

Read more about Dr. Hotez >

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  • About Lokhandwala

    The Lokhandwala Lecture & Research Convocation series honors University of Houston Professor Emeritus Mustafa F. Lokhandwala, Ph.D., FAHA, FASN.

    Known to most as "Musti," Lokhandwala came to UH in 1972 as a graduate student joined the college faculty and administration in 1981. Over the next 46 years, Lokhandwala was elevated to numerous leadership posts within the college – including Department Chair (1980-1991), Dean (1992-2002), Executive Vice-Dean for Research (2003-2019), Joseph P. and Shirly Shipman Buckley Endowed Professor (2018-2022) and Director of the Heart and Kidney Institute (2006-2021) – and in his scientific and professional pursuits, including election as Fellow of American Heart Association and the American Society of Nephrology.

    Lokhandwala’s passion and commitment to the college, its students and scientific knowledge resulted in many achievements in the college’s growth and development, including securing approval from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for establishing Ph.D. and Pharm.D. programs at the college and increasing research funding from $500,000 in the 1990s to over $11 million in FY2018.

    Lokhandwala’s successful research program, which focused on understanding the mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, received continuous support from the National Institutes of Health. His research also has produced more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and reviews, 200-plus abstracts, and more than two dozen books and book chapters.

    A member of the college’s Mading Society of benefactors, Lokhandwala has helped create several endowed scholarships at the college, including the Perin Lokhandwala Presidential Endowed Fellowship for Pharm.D./Ph.D. students. In addition, he and his wife, Sanober, funded the first endowed professorship in the Department of Pharmaceutical Health Outcomes and Policy.