Rate My Professor Michael Pikal

Michael J. Pikal served as Emeritus Professor and former Department Head of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy. He joined the UConn faculty in 1996 as Professor of Pharmaceutics after a distinguished 24-year career at Eli Lilly and Company, where he rose to senior research scientist and received the President’s Award in 1996. Prior to industry, he held the position of assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Tennessee from 1967 to 1972. At UConn, Pikal served as department head of Pharmaceutical Sciences from 1998 to 2001 and was installed as the inaugural Pfizer Distinguished Endowed Chair in Pharmaceutical Technology in 2005. He retired in December 2017.

Pikal earned a B.S. in chemistry from St. John’s University in Minnesota and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Iowa State University in 1966, followed by postdoctoral training at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. His research focused on the science and technology of freeze-drying, solid-state chemistry and materials science of pharmaceuticals, and protein stability, resulting in more than 170 publications and extensive collaborations with industry and institutions. He was a leader in establishing partnerships such as the Center for Pharmaceutical Processing Research and the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Education. Pikal received numerous honors, including the Ebert Prize in 1997, AAPS Fellow status, the AAPS Research Achievement Award in Pharmaceutical Technologies in 2001, the Criofarma Award in Freeze Drying in 2006, and the AAPS Distinguished Pharmaceutical Scientist Award in 2009. He served on editorial advisory boards for Pharmaceutical Development and Technology and the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, contributed to NIH study sections and other review panels, and trained more than 40 Ph.D. students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scholars.