Triggle Named Chair of Pharmaceutical Sciences Commission

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- David J. Triggle, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for graduate education at the University at Buffalo, has been appointed by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy to chair a new Commission on the Future of Graduate Education in the Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The new commission will address questions about the future need for doctoral graduates in the pharmaceutical sciences and ways to monitor supply and demand; the appropriate skills needed by doctoral graduates to maintain productivity in a multidisciplinary scientific environment, and the nature of the education doctoral students require to achieve those skills.

A SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biochemical Pharmacology and former dean of the UB School of Pharmacy, Triggle joined the UB faculty in 1962. He served as chair of the Department of Biochemical Pharmacology from 1971-85, when he was named dean.

Triggle's internationally recognized research focuses on how drugs interact with calcium channels, cellular mechanisms that regulate the entry of calcium when stimulated. He has conducted pioneering research into the action of calcium-channel antagonists in the cardiovascular system and studies calcium channels and aging.

Triggle has served on numerous internal and external committees relating to pharmacy and health-sciences curricula and the future of graduate programs in general.

A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and chair of its Pharmaceutical Sciences Section, Triggle is a member of numerous professional societies. He serves on many editorial boards and recently started his own trade magazine, Pharmaceutical News, of which he is editor.

Among his numerous honors, he has received the Otto Krayer Award in Pharmacology from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and the Volwiler Research Achievement Award of the American Association of the College of Pharmacy.

A native of London, England, Triggle received a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Hull and a bachelor's degree from the University of Southampton.

He lives in Clarence.