The Script: May pharmacy grad earns prestigious Royster Fellowship
Kasie Corley |
Fourth graduate of Pharm.D-to-Ph.D. program heads to UNC
Lipscomb Student Pharmacist Jessica Murray (P4) has been awarded the prestigious Royster Fellowship, a highly selective program for Ph.D. candidates at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the top-ranked school in the nation for pharmacy according to the U.S. News and World Report’s 2017 rankings.
The Royster Society of Fellows is a prestigious interdisciplinary fellowship program within The Graduate School at the UNC Chapel Hill. The program attracts exceptionally talented graduate students and allows UNC to support them with generous financial resources and unique opportunities to reach their highest level of success.
More than 650 graduate students from throughout the nation and the world have joined the Royster Society of Fellows since 1996. These leaders continue to make meaningful contributions through research and real-world impact, undergraduate classroom teaching and outreach to communities across the state.
The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy is allotted one nominee for the Royster annually, according to Dr. Daniel Crona, division director of graduate admissions in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics,
“Jessica was not only the top candidate for the division, she was deemed to be the top graduate student candidate for the entire pharmaceutical sciences program,” said Crona. “Speaking on behalf of the entire faculty for the division, we are simply ecstatic to have attracted a pharmacist-scientist with such intelligence, drive and character.”
“Jessica is one of four students who have participated in our innovative Pharm.D.-to-Ph.D. pathway program,” said Dr. Scott Akers, Lipscomb chair and professor of pharmaceutical sciences. “The three previous students were highly recruited into one of the top pharmacology graduate programs at Vanderbilt University and all have gone on to secure highly competitive fellowships at the national level. Their success is one of the major factors that is starting to enhance our national reputation and make us more competitive for securing research funding.”
Murray’s mentor, researcher and Lipscomb Assistant Professor Dr. Klarissa Jackson said Murray’s achievement has the pharmacy team excited.
“Jessica is a really unique student. She’s very gifted, very intelligent and exceptionally driven. She’s focused,” Jackson said. “To think that she was the student selected from UNC for this fellowship is both humbling for us and also something to really celebrate. It speaks to the caliber of student she is and to our program that we can offer the kind of training that is recognized at that level. We’re very thankful.”
“It goes to show how well Lipscomb has prepared me for this that they chose me out of their applicant pool to put me forward for that fellowship,” said Murray. “It was a really big honor, and I wasn’t expecting it.”
Murray’s desire to impact the lives of others in a positive manner spurred her interest in health-related research. “I chose Lipscomb because of the pharmaceutical sciences program here. They had a brand new lab. I knew going in I wanted to do research here,” she said.
Collaborating on a project with a fellow faculty member, Dr. Susan Mercer, and in the midst of another research project which received a $660,000 grant from the National Institute of Health, Jackson brought Murray on as a member of her research team.
“I had never worked with these compounds before, so I needed a bright student who would be able to start working on a project from the ground up,” Jackson said. “That’s exactly what she did.”
The work required a disciplined and detailed approach, which Murray provided, she said. Scouring through scientific literature and papers to provide background, Murray’s initiative quickly led her to be the team’s subject matter expert. “She reads the scientific literature at a more mature level than most students,” said Jackson.
Making Lipscomb history, Murray became one of two students to earn the American Foundation of Pharmaceutical Education Scholarship, of which only 15 are awarded nationally each year. Later, she received the American Associations of Colleges of Pharmacy Walmart Scholarship as well as an invitation to attend their national conference. She also received a travel award to attend a conference sponsored by the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics held in Japan.
In 2017, Murray won the best student presentation at Vanderbilt’s Neuroscience Extravaganza. Notified of the event by another faculty member with just enough time to participate, Murray presented her research on meperidine and its effects on the central nervous system.
“Jessica took the initiative to prepare for the presentation independently, and she won. She’s so modest, but she’s phenomenal,” said Jackson. “She does her best at everything, even if it seems small.”
Murray’s deep dive into pharmaceutical research at Lipscomb was impressive to those choosing the Royster Fellowship recipient.
“Her pharmacy training, combined with her established research skills, place Jessica in a unique position to solve complex public health problems,” said Crona.
“Jessica also comes to us with exceptional leadership skills, and a fierce desire to craft a research career focused on optimizing medications for underserved populations, as evidenced by her work with her local American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists chapter and the Grace Works charity in Nashville,” he continued.
“In her interviews at UNC, it was evident that Jessica thrives in situations that allow her to apply her creativity to tackle complex problems that require innovative solutions. Her chemistry and pharmacy background, coupled with her extensive clinical pharmacology research during her Pharm.D. training, truly make her one of the most unique and exciting applicants we have ever recruited into our division.”
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To read more stories from The Script, April 2018, edition click here.