Professor Michael Rybak wins Distinguished Investigator Award

Michael Rybak

The American College of Clinical Pharmacy's Infectious Diseases Practice Network (ID-PRN) has honored Wayne State University Professor of Pharmacy Practice Michael Rybak with its 2019 Distinguished Investigator Award. A faculty member of the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences for 38 years, Rybak is also an adjunct professor in the School of Medicine's Division of Infectious Diseases.

The award recognizes significant original research contributions relevant to pharmacy practice in the field of infectious diseases. 

Rybak is an internationally recognized authority on anti-infective pharmacodynamics and antimicrobial pharmacotherapy. His research has focused on optimizing antibiotic therapies using unique and innovative pharmacotherapy strategies in both laboratory and clinical settings to improve antibiotic efficacy and avoid the emergence of antibiotic resistance, with a long-term goal of translating these strategies to improve patient care. He founded and runs the Anti-Infective Research Lab (ARL).

Due to the universal importance of his work, Rybak has received 196 funded research grants from federal, national and international foundations, and private industry funding sources totaling millions of dollars. He has been invited to give over 300 presentations nationally and abroad; published his work in nearly 400 journal articles, 20 book chapters and in 429 abstracts; and earned over 32 awards recognizing his research achievements in the infectious disease field. He is an elected fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists, the latter of which he was a founding member.

In addition, Rybak has trained 46 post-doctoral research fellows and 26 clinical pharmacy research residents, most of whom are now leaders in academic pharmacy and microbiology. Many of these individuals have gone on to train leaders in the field themselves, further amplifying Rybak's impact on the future of his research field.

Rybak will receive the award at the ID-PRN Business and Networking Forum at the 40th Annual ACCP Meeting in New York City in October.

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