University at Buffalo pharmacy school announces 2022 alumni award winners

Lisa Benincosa, PhD '93, is the recipient of the 2022 Willis G. Gregory Memorial Award. The award is the most prestigious given by the school, honoring an outstanding alum who personifies the ideals of service, integrity and profession of pharmacy in the eyes of their colleagues.

Benincosa is Senior Vice-President, Global Head of Translational Medicine at EMD Serono, a business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt Germany.

She began her professional career in the Clinical Pharmacokinetic Department at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, where she served as Section Head with additional global responsibility for preclinical and clinical pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD). Benincosa joined Pfizer in 2001 as Director in Clinical PK/PD and became Executive Director and Groton/New London Clinical Pharmacology Site Head in 2003. In 2009, she joined Roche and was Vice-President/Deputy Head Pharmaceutical Sciences and Global Head of DMPK, Clinical Pharmacology and Bioanalytical R&D over her 10-year tenure.

She has received numerous leadership awards throughout her career, including the Pfizer People Leader Award, the Tribute to Women and Industry Award, and the Leadership Excellence Award from Roche pRED.

She has more than 30 publications in peer reviewed journals. She is a long-standing member of professional societies serving as reviewer of journals and was recently named to the Board of Directors of American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

Elizabeth Ludwig, BS ’81, PharmD ‘84, is the recipient of the 2022 Orville C. Baxter Memorial Professional Practice Award. The award acknowledges leadership within the profession of pharmacy, career innovation and dedication to the school and students.

Ludwig currently serves as Associate Vice President of Quantitative Clinical Pharmacology at Cognigen Corporation. She has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with a focus on population pharmacokinetic model development, including implementation and strategic use of modeling and simulation approaches to guide drug development programs and regulatory interactions.

Prior to her work at Cognigen, Ludwig had more than 15 years of experience in leading clinical research, pharmaceutical education, and training, and served as an adjunct associate professor for the school. She has been the recipient of various research grants and teaching awards. She is an active member of several professional organizations.

Ludwig has co-authored 40 research publications and numerous posters and presentations at various pharmaceutical meetings. She currently serves as a manuscript reviewer for several pharmacometrics journals.