Reddy honored with AAPS Global Leader Award

D. Samba Reddy, PhD, RPh, professor in the Department of Neurosciences and Experimental Therapeutics at the Texas A&M University College of Medicine, has been honored with the 2020 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Global Leader Award.

Founded in 1986, the AAPS is a world renowned professional, scientific organization that advances the pharmaceutical sciences by developing products and therapies for the betterment of public health. The AAPS includes approximately 7,000 individual members and more than 10,000 stakeholders working in academia, industry, government and other pharmaceutical science research institutes.

A board-certified pharmacist-pharmacologist, Reddy has continually pioneered research for neurotherapeutics, epilepsy and related brain disorders throughout his career. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has funded his research for more than 14 years. Reddy is a Fellow of the American Epilepsy Society (AES), the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.

Reddy has previously been a recipient of The Association of Former Students’ Distinguished Achievement Award in the category of research, the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2020 Association of Biotechnology and Pharmacy (ABAP) & International Biotechnology Conference, and the Mario Toppo Distinguished Science Award, among many others.

“I am excited to receive the Global Leader Award and grateful to the AAPS for this honor,” Reddy said. “It’s been a privilege to work at Texas A&M, and I am grateful to my colleagues, students and postdoctoral fellows who carried my bench ideas into clinical realities. Pursuing excellence in work and feeding my hunger with persistence and common good is what I believe is the ‘most rewarding’ gift of my academic career, and is a gift I believe anyone can and deserves to achieve.”

This AAPS award honors Reddy’s lifetime research and leadership contributions to the global pharmaceutical sciences community. This award is one of the top honors given to one individual annually, and it recognizes leaders working in pharmaceutical science, technology, engineering or education who have made significant contributions.

The AAPS celebrated Reddy’s honor at its Annual Meeting Awards Night during the AAPS PharmSci-360 meeting on October 26. The association hosted a virtual reception in his honor where Reddy gave a speech discussing the award’s significance to him.

“My congratulations go out to Dr. Reddy on this significant award,” said Amy Waer, MD, FACS, interim dean of the College of Medicine. “His research is doing great things in the treatment of epilepsy and other brain disorders and we are proud to have him in our college.