“Socrates’ notion, that ‘education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel,’ spoke clearly to me....It is easy to understand my particular passion for graduate students. These individuals come looking to be set on fire....There is nothing more personally rewarding...than knowing I helped light that fire.”

When Richard Brundage returned to the U in 2001 to lead its Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology program, he was one of only four faculty members with a Pharm.D. and the Ph.D. training necessary to advise graduate students. That first year, he mentored colleagues and students alike--coadvising nearly all of the first cohort of students, while training faculty in graduate instruction and advising.

Just seven years later, Brundage has tripled the cadre of Ph.D. advisers and nurtured what was a fledgling program into one of the top two of its kind in the nation. Pharmacy schools around the country view it as a model, and Brundage and his colleagues are regularly asked to speak and write on the future of, and training for, the field.

In a highly technical arena, says a colleague, “Dr. Brundage is the con-summate mentor and excels in...making pharmacometrics understandable to all.” Another adds, “It means everything to him that others comprehend...and he takes whatever time is required to make sure that happens.” One advisee who was able to present three abstracts and a podium presentation at national conferences and publish in a respected journal says, “He made me think, and allowed me to explore, but kept the scope...well-focused.”

“His open-door policy welcomes everyone, not just his own graduate students,” says a former advisee. Another, now a professor, adds, “although he has considerable teaching and mentoring responsibilities at the U, somehow he is able to find time to guide and teach others outside of his institution.”

Visit the Richard C. Brundage faculty Web page here.