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School of Pharmacy welcomes new chair, faculty to its department of pharmaceutical sciences and research

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The Marshall University School of Pharmacy has selected Boyd R. Rorabaugh, Ph.D., as professor and chair of its department of pharmaceutical sciences and research. The department also welcomes Melinda E. Varney, Ph.D., as an assistant professor and Mohammad Ahsanul Akbar, M.Pharm., Ph.D., as an instructor.

Rorabaugh comes from the Ohio Northern University College of Pharmacy, where he served as a professor in the department of pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences. Throughout his career, he has authored more than 70 publications, research abstracts and monographs and been acknowledged with awards for teaching.  His primary research and teaching interests are in the area of cardiovascular disease.  Rorabaugh is a member of the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and the American Heart Association. He received his Ph.D. in pharmacology from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

“We are thrilled to have Dr. Rorabaugh on board to lead our growing, team-based teaching and research enterprise in the department,” said Gayle A. Brazeau, Ph.D., dean of the school of pharmacy. “We are also excited about the passion for research and the teaching experience Drs. Varney and Akbar bring to our school.”

Varney most recently held a research assistant professor position at the West Virginia University School of Medicine. Prior to that appointment, during her postdoctoral fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, she gained teaching experience at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. She has authored more than a dozen publications and been awarded nearly two dozen awards and scholarships throughout her career. Varney is a Marshall University alumna, having earned her doctorate in biomedical sciences in 2010.

Akbar  previously served as a postdoctoral associate at the University of Florida’s Department of Pharmaceutics, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and GlaxoSmithKline. He was an assistant professor at the University of Dhaka’s Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology in Bangladesh. He has also worked as a product executive and manufacturing and quality assurance officer in the pharmaceutical industry in Bangladesh. Akbar has authored nearly 25 publications and received many research awards, including an Oakridge Institute for Science and Education fellowship and American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientist Biotechnology Awards.