UC's Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Member Award Goes to Gary Kelm, PhD

After retiring in 2009 from a successful career in health and beauty research and development with Procter and Gamble, it would have been understandable if Gary Kelm, PhD, had hung up a "GONE GOLFING" sign. Lucky for the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy, Kelm continued teaching as adjunct faculty. He began at Winkle College in 1997 by teaching three graduate courses (Advanced Biopharmaceutics I and II and Advanced Drug Delivery Systems), and from there worked tirelessly to improve upon the programfs stellar reputation. 

Since 2009, adjunct professor Kelm has developed three graduate courses, Cosmetic Formulation II (2009), Oral Care Products (2011) and OTC Topical Drug Products (2013) and offered them each year. He has coordinated the Master of Science Capstone Sequence (Cosmetic Project I and II), offered every semester, since 2011, significantly revising and upgrading the syllabi to incorporate new communication technologies and improve the academic experience for the students. Under his leadership, a number of enhancements to the program were made and the program became the largest of its kind in the country.

"In my interactions with Dr. Kelm, he quickly distinguished himself from other academic advisors and professors that I have encountered throughout my academic career not only in the expertise and understanding that he had for both the academic and professional aspects of the consumer products industry, but mostly in the compassion and caring that he had for all students,h says one  former student.

In addition to student education and graduate student mentoring, Kelm is also a researcher assisting the college in its mission to advance health science and discovery. Kelm is a co]investigator in an FDA sponsored research project on the Development of a Dissolution Method for Long-acting Periodontal Drug Products and is also a co]investigator in recent NIH grant proposals on dental research in addition to being a consultant to the pharmaceutical and personal care industry.