AAPS elevates Pitt Distinguished Professor Steven Little to Fellow

Steven R. Little, Distinguished Professor and Department Chair of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, is among eight members of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) selected for elevation to Fellow status in recognition of professional excellence and sustained superior impact in fields relevant to AAPS’ mission: advancing the capacity of pharmaceutical scientists to develop products and therapies that improve global health.

According to an announcement by AAPS, Little is recognized for his extraordinary scholarship and expertise in the field of controlled release mechanisms of drug delivery, permitting targeted delivery to inaccessible tissues. He and his cohort will be formally inducted before the membership at PharmSci 360 on Sunday, October 20 in Salt Lake City.

AAPS Fellows are nominated by AAPS members, and the status of Fellow denotes professional excellence and a sustained, positive impact on global health and the AAPS community, according to the association.

“These eight individuals exemplify the spirt of pharmaceutical science,” 2024 AAPS President Gopi Shankar, PhD, M.B.A., FAAPS, said. “Their scientific leadership has led to advancements in support of patients worldwide across multiple disciplines. I am honored to share the stage with them at PharmSci 360 in October.”

Little holds the title of William Kepler Whiteford Endowed Professor in the Swanson School of Engineering, as well as secondary appointments in Bioengineering, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Immunology, Ophthalmology, and the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

“Steven is a remarkable innovator who has garnered an international reputation for his pharmaceutics and drug delivery research,” noted Sanjeev G. Shroff, Interim U. S. Steel Dean of Engineering at Pitt. “I congratulate him on behalf of the Swanson School and look forward to his future accomplishments in what is already an outstanding young career.”

The other AAPS Fellows include:

• Nagesh Bandi, PhD, Global Head and Vice President of Regulatory Affairs CMC at Astellas
• Yi Gao, PhD, Research Fellow at AbbVie
• Wenlei Jiang, PhD, Senior Advisor for Innovation and Strategic Outreach with the U.S. FDA
• Juliane Nguyen, PhD, PharmD,  Professor and Vice Chair of the Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Jayachandra Babu Ramapuram, PhD, Professor of Pharmaceutics at the Harrison College of Pharmacy, Auburn University
• Catherine Mary Turner Sherwin, PhD, Vice President Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics, Differentia Bio
• Qi “Tony” Zhou, PhD, Associate Professor and University Faculty Scholar of Industrial and Molecular Pharmaceutics, Purdue University

More about Steve Little

Since receiving his PhD in 2005 – with his thesis winning the AAAS Excellence in Research Award – he has developed numerous new drug formulations including controlled drug release that mimics the body’s own mechanisms of healing and resolving inflammation. Unlike traditional medications that require large doses administered via ingestion, inoculation or intravenously, biomimetic treatments recruit a patient’s own cells to treat disease at the source. Little’s research shows potential new applications for glaucoma, gum disease, and even transplant organ rejection.

Little is internationally recognized for his research in pharmaceutics and biomimetic drug delivery systems. He was appointed Distinguished Professor in 2021, Pitt’s highest faculty honor, and is the only University professor to receive the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching, Research, and Public Service awards.

In 2022, he was elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 2021 was named Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the highest professional distinction accorded to academic inventors. His other honors include the Curtis W. McGraw Research Award from the ASEE, being elected as a fellow of the BMES and AIMBE, a Carnegie Science Award for Research, the Society for Biomaterials’ Young Investigator Award, the University of Pittsburgh’s Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award, being named a Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar, being named an Arnold and Mabel Beckman Young Investigator, and being elected to the Board of Directors of the Society for Biomaterials. The Controlled Release Society (CRS) awarded Little with two of its top honors, the Distinguished Service Award (2021) and Young Investigator Award (2018); and in 2020 elected him its College of Fellows for “outstanding and sustained contributions to the field of delivery science and technology over a minimum of ten years.”

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