2023 Alumni Agent of Change
Diana S-L. Chow, MS, PhD’81
Dr. Diana Shu-Lian Chow, Ph.D. and FNAI, is Paula & John J Lovoi Endowed Professor in Drug Discovery and Development, Professor of Pharmaceutics, and Director of the Institute for Drug Education and Research (IDER) in the University of Houston College of Pharmacy (UHCOP). She has been active, well-funded and accomplished in research, education and administrative services at the UHCOP for 42 years since February 1981. Dr. Chow’s research endeavors have resulted in an FDA approved product of Busulfan®, which is used in all continents and serves the gold standard protocol for preparative regimen of blood, bone marrow or stem cell transplant. Her innovative research in drug discovery and development led to multiple patents in various stages of development for clinical applications, for that she was inducted as Fellow of National Academy of Inventors in 2016.
In education, Dr. Chow was awarded UH Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award in March 2021, and subsequently Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award by Conference of Southern Graduate School (CSGS of 200 Institutions) in February 2022, for training 41 Ph.D.’s, including two PharmD/Ph.D., and seven Master’s alumni, and 26 postdoctoral fellows during 1984-2022. They are all well placed and have productive and successful careers in academia, pharmaceutical industry, FDA, consulting, pharmacy, business, or medical practice.
In service, Dr. Chow has been UH faculty senate since 2012, Vice Chair and Chair Elect of Research and Scholarly Subcommittee in 2022, and active in professional/society services including as a grant reviewer for NIH, DoD and Research Grant Council (RGC) of Hong Kong.
Recent Honors and Awards in 2022:
2022, Jack L. Beal Alumni Award, College of Pharmacy, The Ohio State University, October 21, 2022
2022, “Excellence in Achievement” recognition at American College of Clinical Pharmacology (ACCP),
August 9, and during ACCP Annual Meeting on September 25-27, 2022
2023 Alumni Future Agent of Change
Tarique Benbow, PhD’22
An avid innovator and critical thinker, Dr. Tarique Benbow has always been a trailblazer in his community. He began his professional career as an industrial pharmacist after completing his Bachelor of Pharmacy degree (2014) at the University of Technology Jamaica. In his native country, he worked at P.A. Benjamin Manufacturing Company Ltd, the leading manufacturer of pharmaceuticals in the Caribbean, to help the firm achieve ISO certification and optimize its manufacturing processes and quality management systems.
Dr. Benbow’s interest in building a global career drove him to pursue a Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia. Under the supervision of Professor Brian Cairns, he invented a novel animal model of migraine headache and revealed that peripheral glutamate receptors are a potential migraine drug target. His Ph.D. work has been published in top journals in the field such as PAIN®, Cephalalgia and Nature’s Scientific Reports.
Dr. Benbow’s success as an academic researcher is augmented by his passion and philanthropic ambition. During his Ph.D., he dedicated much of his free time to organizations geared at supporting graduate students. He held several leadership positions including the Vice President of UBC’s Graduate Student Society (GSS), where he led the Graduate Student Affordability campaign that supported the implementation of the President's Academic Excellence Initiative Ph.D. Awards (PAEIPA). In addition to his work at the GSS, Tarique was also a Member of UBC’s Vancouver Senate, President of the Student Biotechnology Network and most recently, the Co-founder of HirePhD Society, a non-profit organization that assists talents with advanced degrees to navigate career paths outside of academia.
Currently, Dr. Benbow is a management consultant at Bain & Company, a world-leading strategy consulting firm, where he drives change on an international scale by designing sustainable solutions for the most pressing business challenges of diverse public, private, and non-profit organizations.