Dr. Fletcher awarded honorary Scientist Laureate

Courtney Fletcher, PharmD, former dean of the UNMC College of Pharmacy, was presented an honorary Scientist Laureate Award on Feb. 24 at the 2021 Distinguished Scientist Awards ceremony.

In presenting the award, Vice Chancellor for Research Jennifer Larsen, MD, pointed to Dr. Fletcher’s national stature in antiviral clinical pharmacology. His research has focused on finding more effective drugs and approaches to treat, and potentially cure, infection with HIV.

"Dr. Fletcher has been continually funded by NIH since 1987, receiving more than $16 million as a principal investigator and nearly $64 million as a co-investigator," Dr. Larsen said.

College of Pharmacy Dean Keith Olsen, PharmD, said Dr. Fletcher is among the top pharmacist HIV scientists in the world and one of five top research-funded pharmacists over the last 50 years.

"He has pioneered our understanding of the clinical pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenomics of HIV antiviral therapies," Dr. Olsen said.

Dr. Larsen noted that the award was being given not only for his personal research accomplishments but also Dr. Fletcher’s critical role in growing research in the College of Pharmacy during his time as dean from 2007 to 2018, when the college saw a 99.5% increase in NIH funding.

When he stepped down as dean, the college ranked 10th in total NIH funding out of the more than 145 colleges and schools of pharmacy in the United States. The college ranked third out of all U.S. colleges and schools of pharmacy in NIH research funding per FTE faculty and had been among the top 10 for this metric for the past nine years. Additionally, annual grant submissions had increased 162 percent since 2007.

While dean, Dr. Fletcher developed the proposal and oversaw the 2016 opening of the new UNMC Center for Drug Discovery-Lozier Center for Pharmacy Sciences and Education, a $35 million building constructed entirely through private donations.

"All of my accomplishments have been possible because of the colleagues and collaborators, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students and pharmacy students that I have had the pleasure to work with, the individuals who agreed to participate in the clinical trials we conducted and importantly my wife, Jean, who is always supportive and tolerant," Dr. Fletcher said. "Additionally, in my laboratory, we have focused more on the first five letters (LABOR) and less on the last seven (ORATORY), and that has been helpful as well."

During the ceremony, Dr. Larsen told Dr. Fletcher: "While this may sound a little bit like a lifetime achievement award, this does not mean that we expect you to stop doing research any time soon."

Dr. Fletcher presently serves as professor, director of the Antiviral Pharmacology Laboratory and dean emeritus of the UNMC College of Pharmacy.