USP Congratulates Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Recipient of 2014 Othmer Gold Medal
Rockville, Md. (PRWEB) May 16, 2014 -- The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) congratulates Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on receipt of the 2014 Othmer Gold Medal. Established by the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) in 1997, the award honors outstanding individuals who have made multifaceted contributions to chemical and scientific heritage through outstanding activity in such areas as innovation, entrepreneurship, research, education, public understanding, legislation or philanthropy.
According to Ronald T. Piervincenzi, Ph.D., chief executive officer of USP, “Kiran’s contributions to the global biopharmaceutical community are stellar and this honor is well-deserved. The commitment and leadership, she has continuously demonstrated in business as well as her public health advocacy have helped to shape USP’s goal of making good quality medicines available around the world through robust public standards.”
In addition to her responsibilities as chairperson and managing director of Biocon, Mazumdar-Shaw is an at-large trustee of the USP Board of Trustees serving on USP’s board since 2013. She is the 20th recipient of the Othmer Gold Medal and the third woman to receive this award, which was presented this week during CHF’s Chemical Heritage Day celebration.
“I am deeply grateful to the Chemical Heritage Foundation for awarding me the 2014 Othmer Gold Medal,” said Mazumdar-Shaw. “This is an honor akin to being invited to join an extraordinary league of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, thought leaders and philanthropists, an emotion that is both proud and humbling at the same time.”
Past medalists include Arnold O. Beckman, Carl Djerassi, Mary Lowe Good, Harry B. Gray, Jon M. Huntsman, Kazuo Inamori, Robert S. Langer, P. Roy Vagelos, James D. Watson, George Whitesides and Ahmed Zewail.
Under Mazumdar-Shaw’s stewardship, Biocon has evolved significantly since its inception in 1978 as an industrial enzymes company to a fully integrated biopharmaceutical enterprise, with a research focus on diabetes, oncology and autoimmune diseases. Named among Time’s 100 most influential people in the world and Forbes’s 100 most powerful women in 2010, Mazumdar-Shaw has made affordable innovation the foundation of her business model. In 2012 the Economic Times placed her second in India Inc.’s “Top 10 Most Powerful Women CEOs,” and in 2006 Nature Biotechnology voted her the most influential bio-businessperson outside Europe and the U.S. Her vision and work for biotechnology have drawn global recognition both for Indian industry and Biocon.
Mazumdar-Shaw received a graduate honors degree in zoology from Bangalore University and qualified as a master brewer from Ballarat University, Australia. She also holds honorary doctorates from Ballarat University; the University of Abertay, Dundee, U.K.; the University of Glasgow, U.K.; Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, U.K.; the National University of Ireland and Trinity College, Dublin.
Theresa Laranang-Mutlu, U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention, http://www.usp.org, +1 301-816-8167, [email protected]
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