MacKerell Named First Evelyn Grollman-Glick Endowed Professor

Renowned scientist awarded endowed professorship in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

By Becky Ceraul
April 23, 2008

After a 15 year tenure at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Alexander D. MacKerell, Jr., PhD, has been named the School’s first Evelyn Grollman-Glick Endowed Professor, which was created to recognize an outstanding member of the School of Pharmacy faculty who is a nationally and internationally recognized biomedical researcher in the pharmaceutical or related basic sciences.

MacKerell’s research involves computational and theoretical studies of biological, pharmaceutical and chemical systems. His specific areas of interest include structure-function relationships of proteins and nucleic acids, computer-aided drug design targeting cancer, opioids and immunosuppression and the development of force fields for biological and pharmaceutical compounds.

“Alex has made outstanding contributions to the field of computational chemistry and its application to the design and discovery of novel therapeutic agents,” says Andrew Coop, PhD, associate professor and chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the School of Pharmacy. “He is passionate about his science and the School, and is a true role model for junior faculty members.”

MacKerell joined the School of Pharmacy as an assistant professor in 1993. He received a PhD from Rutgers University and completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and at Harvard. He is director of the School of Pharmacy’s Computer-Aided Drug Design Center. He’s published 140 journal articles and 16 book chapters, given 100 talks and has 11 patents. He has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation, and Procter and Gamble.

“Being awarded the Evelyn Grollman-Glick Endowed Professorship is a true honor,” says MacKerell. “I believe that we are products of our environment and my family set the ground work for me to develop into a scientist. Everyone at the School of Pharmacy from faculty, staff and administration and the people who work in my lab, have been so supportive.”

The Evelyn Grollman-Glick Endowed Professorship was made possible by a bequest from the estate of the late Evelyn Grollman-Glick, the sister of Ellis S. Grollman, who graduated from the School of Pharmacy in 1926. Upon his graduation from the School of Pharmacy, Grollman practiced as a pharmacist at Johns Hopkins and Sinai hospitals in Baltimore. He later served as a community pharmacist in several Maryland cities, including Frederick, Ocean City, Gaithersburg and Annapolis. The endowment funds both the professorship and an annual lecture series that brings well-recognized researcher in the pharmaceutical and related basic sciences to speak to students and faculty.