In October 1999, the faculty of the University of Parma, Italy, awarded an honorary doctorate to Prof. Nicholas Peppas. A video of the investiture ceremony and the inaugural doctoral lecture in Italian at the October 13, 1999 university meeting can be found here. Some stills are presented below.

Entrance of the representatives of 12 Faculties of Pharmacy of Italian Universities and of the representatives of the Academic Senate of the University of Parma. Then a small presentations of the Gaudeamus Igitur (So Let Us Rejoice), a popular academic song sung or performed at European university graduation ceremonies. Here it is sung by members of the Coro Ildebrando Pizzetti.

Greetings by the Magnifico Rettore della Università di Parma, Prof. Nicola Occhiocupo. Members of the faculty of the university; among them Profs. Ruggero Bettini, Patrizia Santi and Ferdinando Giordano (top row, 1st, 2nd and 4th from left) and Paolo Colombo (1st, bottom row), all collaborators of Prof. Peppas.

Prof. Paolo Colombo reads the laudatio, i.e., the reasons for awarding the honorary degree. Then Prof. Giancarlo Pelizzi, Chair of General Chemistry and President of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Parma awards the honorary Dottore di Pharmacia.

Investiture of Prof. Peppas with the bright red gown of the University of Parma.

The Magnifico Rettore della Università di Parma, Prof. Nicola Occhiocupo awards Dr Peppas the cup of the University along with the Medal and an appropriate diploma.

End of the formal ceremony and applause by the faculty.

Prof. Peppas gives his inaugural lecture in Italian. Here he addresses the faculty and thanks his collaborators at the University of Parma.

Here Prof. Peppas addresses the colleagues representing the faculties of the Universities of Pavia, Milano, Torino, Perugia, Urbino, Napoli, Ferrara, Trieste, Firenze and Roma, and thanks his collaborators for their support. The inaugural lecture is followed by a warm recognition.

In 1999, the faculty of the University of Parma, Italy, awarded an honorary doctorate to Prof. Nicholas Peppas. Here Peppas gives his inaugural doctoral lecture in Italian at the October 13, 1999 gathering of the faculty. (October 1999)

Following the ceremony of awarding the doctorate honoris causae to Professor Peppas, several Italian colleagues, collaborators and friends gather for a photograph. From left: Professor Flavio Forni of the University of Modena, Professor Ubaldo Conte of the University of Pavia, Professor Paolo Colombo of the University of Parma, Professor Nicholas Peppas wearing the doctoral cup and gown of the University of Parma, Professor Franco Barbato of the University of Naples, Professor Maria Immacolata LaRotonda of the University of Naples, Professor Andrea Gazzaniga of the University of Milan and Professor Ruggero Bettini of the University of Parma. Our laboratory has collaborated with the laboratories of all the professors above and more than 45 publications have been published (October 13, 1999)

From the retirement meeting of Prof. F. Puisieux (Paris) (October 1999)

Banquet at the Third Central European Symposium on Pharmaceutical Technology in Portoroz, Slovenia. From left: Prof Atilla Hincal of Haceteppe University of Ankara, Turkey, Prof Julijana Kristl of the University of Ljubliana, Slovenia, N Peppas and Prof. Ubaldo Conte of the University of Pavia, Italy (September 23, 1999)

Lunch with faculty of the University of Ghent before the Honorary Doctorate ceremony at the University of Ghent, Belgium. From left: Prof. Jo Demeester who made the nomination, Prof Peppas, Prof. Gilbert Froment (a distinguished chemical engineer and NAE member), Prof Albert Lauwers (Head of Department), Prof Lisa Brannon-Peppas and Prof Etienne Schacht (March 19, 1999).

In 1999, the faculty of the University of Ghent, Belgium, awarded an honorary doctorate to Prof. Nicholas Peppas. Here, the four honorees including Dr Peppas at the March 19, 1999 gathering of the faculty. (March 1999)

The faculty of the University of Ghent, Belgium, awards an honorary doctorate to Prof. Nicholas Peppas. Here Dr Peppas is accompanied by his promoter Prof Jo Demeester while the Rector of the University reads the laudatio. (March 1999)

On August 8, 1998 about 100 hundred former students and friends gathered in Indianapolis for a surprise party in honor of Prof Peppas’ 50th birthday (the actual date being two weeks later). Here from the banquet at Sullivan’s (from left) Prof Balaji Narasimhan of Iowa State University and Prof Mike Sefton of the University of Toronto.

Professors A. LaManna (Pavia), U. Conte (Pavia) and N. Peppas. The late Aldo LaManna is considered the premier Italian pharmaceutical technologist. Many of his former students, including Professors Colombo, Caramella, Conte, Gazzaniga, Giordano and others are leading researchers now. (May 1998)

A gathering of former students of the Peppas laboratory at the Purdue hospitality suite of the 1997 AIChE meeting in Los Angeles, CA on November 18, 1997. From left: Dr Flemming Madsen (now of Colorplast, Humlebaek, Denmark), Chris Bowman (now Associate Dean of Engineering, University of Colorado), Matt Helmkamp (now with Rohm and Haas Company, Deer Park, TX), Prof Lisa Brannon-Peppas, Dr Becky Ficek-Fredrickson (now a practicing ophthalmologist, Northwest Eye Associates, Houson, TX), Prof Kristi Anseth (now distinguished professor at the University of Colorado), Prof Alec Scranton (now Associate Dean of Engineering at the University of Iowa), Dr Richard Korsmeyer (now Global Head of Licensing with Pfizer), Nicholas Peppas, Tony Lowman (now Associate Dean of Engineering at Drexel University), Kairali Podual-Banerjee (now with BioArray Solutions in Piscataway, NJ), Prof Surya Mallapragada (now professor at the Iowa State University), Adam Turk (now at Sandia Labs in Albuquerque, NM), Jennifer Sinclair Curtis (Head of Chemical Engineering at the University of Florida) and Prof Balaji Narasimhan (Associate Dean of Engineering at Iowa State University).

From the banquet of the Japanese Drug Delivery Systems (DDS) Society Meeting in Sapporo, Japan. Sitting left Professor Kazinori Kataoka (University of Tokyo) and Teruo Okano (Tokyo Women’s Hospital), the two most prominent Japanese biomaterials scientists. (July 11, 1996).

Professors Peppas, Lisa Brannon-Peppas, and Tsuneji Nagai (Hoshi University, Tokyo) with the background of Fuji-yama (Mount Fuji) (July 1996)

From the banquet of the 23rd International Symposium on Controlled Release of Bioactive Materials, Kyoto, Japan, July 9, 1996. From left: Nicholas Peppas (1987-88 President of CRS), Lisa Brannon-Peppas (1996-98 Treasurer of CRS), Gordon Amidon (Univ Michigan, 1994-95 President of CRS and 1998-99 President of AAPS). Les Benet (Univ California at San Francisco, 1986-87 President of AAPS), Thomas Kissel (Univ of Marburg, 1998-99 President of CRS) and Tsuneji Nagai (1995-96 President of CRS) (July 1996)

25th Reunion of the 1971 Chemical Engineering graduating class of the National Technical University of Athens at Vouliagmeni, Attica. First row: Olga Kitsou, Anna Blatsi, Maria Madaraka, Nikos Peppas, Angela Ladia, Danae Doulia and Costas Karetzopoulos Second row: Elias Kampakas, Costas Lamnatos, Andreas Andritsos, Sokrates Rokotas, Artemis Bamiha and Antonis Zioudas Third row: Costas Kavalieratos, Costas Theologou, Costas Konstantinoglou, Costas Kiparissigis, Manolis Nomikos, Kyriakos Masavetas, Nikos Fragiadakis and Nikso Arabatzis (July 1996)

From the banquet of the 23rd International Symposium on Controlled Release of Bioactive Materials, Kyoto, Japan, July 9, 1996. Tsuneji Nagai (Hoshi University, 1995-1996 CRS President), Nicholas Peppas (1987-1988 CRS President), Lisa Brannon-Peppas (1995-1997 CRS Secretary) and Susan Cady (2007-2008 CRS President)

Nicholas Peppas spent a month as a Visiting Professor in 1996 in the Department of Materials Science of the University of Naples. Here during a visit to the Teatro San Carlo with Prof Paolo Colombo of the University of Parma (May 1996)

Spanish Portuguese Conference on Controlled Drug Delivery, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, September 25, 1995. From left: Rogerio Gaspar (University of Lisbon, Portugal), Jindrich Kopecek (University of Utah), Pavla Kopeckova (University of Utah), Robert Gurny (University of Geneva, Switzerland), Maria Jose Alonso (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain), Bonna and Joe Robinson (University of Wisconsin), Hans Junginger (then University of Leiden, the Netherlands), Jose Luis Vila Jato (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain), Nicholas Peppas and Dolores Torres (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain) (September 1995)

Spanish Portuguese Conference on Controlled Drug Delivery, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, September 25, 1995. From left standing: Jindrich Kopecek (University of Utah), Rogerio Gaspar (University of Lisbon, Portugal); sitting: Nicholas Peppas, Pavla Kopeckova (University of Utah), Paolo Colombo (University of Parma, Italy) and Tsuneji Nagai (Hoshi University, Japan) (September 1995).

Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Nicholas Peppas, Paolo Colombo (Univ of Parma, Italy) and Tsuneji Nagai (Hoshi University, Tokyo, Japan) (September 1995)

International Symposium on Biomedical Polymers in Honor of the 75th Birthday of Prof. Tsuruta
Kozo Takayama (Professor at Hoshi University), Nicholas A Peppas, Teiji Tsuruta (Professor at the University of Tokyo and Teruo Okano (Professor at the Tokyo Women’s College) in Tokyo (April 20, 1995)

Visit to the Hoshi University, Tokyo, Japan
From left: Prof. Kozo Takayama, Prof. Mariko Morishita, Nicholas A Peppas, Obata-san, Prof. Tsuneji Nagai and Prof. Yoshie Maitani. Our collaboration with Hoshi University started in 1990. More than 25 publications have been published with these investigators. (April 1995)

From a dinner of chemical engineers at the 1994 AIChE
meeting in San Francisco, CA.
From left: Professors Andreas Acrivos (Stanford and CUNY), Lisa Brannon-Peppas, Nicholas Peppas and George Gavalas (CalTech). (November 1994)

Induction of Professor Peppas as an Honorary Member of the Italian Society of Medicine and Natural Sciences. From left: Professor Paolo Colombo, Professor Anacleto Peracchia (1929-2000, President of the Society), Professor Tullo Vitali (1925-2007, Dean of the University of Parma) and Professor Peppas (October 1994)

21st International Symposium on Controlled Release of Bioactive Materials, Nice, France. Editorial Board meeting of the journal STP Pharma Sciences (Editions Sante). From left: Prof. Jose Luis Vila Jato (University of Santiago de Compostela), Nicholas Peppas, Pierre Buri (University of Geneva), Prof. Aldo LaManna (University of Pavia), Prof. Clive Wilson (then University of Nottingham, now University of Strathclyde, Glasgow) (June 29, 1994)

Cygnus dinner hosted at the Controlled Release Society Meeting, Nice, France. From left: Lisa Brannon-Peppas (then President of Biogel Technology, and Treasurer of CRS), Nabuko Cleary, Gordon Amidon (CRS President, University of Michigan), Ann Pearlman, Begoña Charro-Guy, Richard Guy (now Professor at the University of Bath, UK), and Rodney Pearlman (June 1994)

Cygnus dinner at the 21st International Symposium on Controlled Release of Bioactive Materials, the Controlled Release Society meeting , in Nice, France, June 29, 1994. From left: Nicholas Peppas, Gordon Amidon (University of Michigan) and Mrs Amidon, Nabuko Cleary, Gary Cleary (Founder and then CTO of Cugnus), Lisa Brannon-Peppas, Richard Guy (then of UC San Francisco and now of the University of Bath), Rodney Perlman and Ann Perlman. (June 1994)

A visit to the University of Parma. Since the late 1970s, PhD students of the Peppas laboratories were doing internships in European and Japanese Universities and companies. Here (from left): Professor Paolo Colombo, Patrizia Santi (now a professor at Parma), Surya Mallapragada (now a professor of chemical engineering at the Iowa State University), Chris Brazel (now professor of chemical engineering at the University of Alabama) and Dr Alessia deAscentiis who did a portion of her PhD in the Peppas laboratories. Alessia was the first one to observe the importance of chain interprenetration as a method to promote mucosal adhesion of polymer carriers. (April 1994)

Israeli Institute of Chemical Engineers Meeting, Beer-sheva, Israel
From left: Bob Wellek (NSF manager), Nicholas Peppas, Jaime Wisniak (former President of Ben-Gurion University) (March 1994)

Visit and seminar at Nichiban Co., Hidaka, Japan, February 3, 1994.

The School of Pharmacy of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Hadassah Medical School where Nicholas Peppas took a sabbatical leave in the Spring 1994 (February 1994).

Symposium Celebrating the 70th Birthday of Edward W Merrill of MIT

Nicholas Peppas speaking while Clark Colton and Ed Merrill of MIT are attending (October 1993)

Symposium Celebrating the 70th Birthday of Edward W Merrill (born August 29, 1923 in New Berford, MA) of MIT. Presentation of the Merrill Academic Family tree to Professor Merrill by Professor Clark Colton (October 1993) in a special symposium in his honor held at MIT. That same evening, a gala event was held at the Boston Aquarium in honor of Ed Merrill 70th birthday and 45-year career. In the audience, one can see David Tirrell of CalTech who was an undergraduate assistant in Merrill's laboratory in 1972-73. Clark Colton was a former Merrill PhD student. A wonderful interview about the early days of biomedical engineering was published soon thereafter by IEEE. Ten years later and on the occasion of the Founders Award of the Society for Biomaterials (April 2003), Ed Merrill received the attached updated academic tree and addendum (October 1993).

A transcript of a 2001 interview with Merrill may be found here.

The Three Nikolais:

The late Nikolai Platé (1934-2006) shown here with Professors Nicholas Peppas and Nicholas Delgass at the Purdue ChE Faculty lounge during one of his visits to Purdue was a good friend of the laboratory. This scientific giant and international leader of the field of polymer science was an Academician and Secretary of the Soviet and then Russian Academy of Sciences. We had numerous interactions with his laboratory including the study of Alla Pavlova at Purdue and Chris Brazel and Balaji Narasimhan at the Academy. Professor Nikolai Platé passed away suddenly in October 2006 (September 1993)

Transdermal Delivery Systems Meeting sponsored by Cygnus and Nichiban, Tokyo, Japan

Vince Lee (Dean at the Univ South California), Ross Potts (Cygnus), Nicholas Peppas, Gary Cleary (CTO of Cygnus, now CEO of Corium International), Nabuko Cleary, S. Spencer (Cygnus) (May 1993)

Transdermal Delivery Systems Meeting sponsored by Cygnus and Nichiban, Tokyo, Japan

Front row middle: Vince Lee (Dean of Pharmacy at the Univ South California) Back row middle: Gary Cleary (CTO of Cygnus, now CEO of Corium International), Ross Potts, Nabuko Cleary, Nicholas Peppas (May 1993)

Lisa Brannon-Peppas (MS '86, PhD '88), Tony Mikos (MS'85, PhD '88) and Nicholas Peppas on Christmas day 1992

Celebration of Allan Hoffman’s 60th Birthday with Scientific meeting at the Westin Hotel, Maui, HI
Front table (from left): Sung Wan Kim (Univ of Utah), Pavla Kopecková (Univ Utah), Jindrich Kopecek (Univ Utah), Jen Feijen (Twente Inst Technology, Enschede, Netherlands), Jim Anderson (with his back to the camera, Case Western Reserve University) Back table: Allan Hoffman (Univ Washington, standing), Claudio Migliaresi (Univ Trento, Italy), Michel Vert (Univ Montpellier, France) (December 1992)

Inaugural class of AIMBE Fellows, National Academy of Science building, March 1992. Among others in first row Savio Woo, Jim Anderson, Stu Cooper, Ajit Yoganathan, Bob Nerem. Second row: Nicholas Peppas (third from let), Paul Citron, Arnie Fredrickson, Ron Eberhardt, Terry Papoutsakis. In the back rows one can also recognize Jack Linehan, Lee Huntsman and Buddy Ratner.

CRS Workshop on Biomaterials and Controlled Release, Jupiter Beach, FL. From left: ?, Jindrich Kopecek (Univ of Utah), Nicholas Peppas, Elazar Edelman (MIT HST Program), Jorge Heller (then at SRI International), Allan Hoffman (Univ Washington), Dan Daniels and Robert Levy (then Univ Michigan) (January 1992)

First US-Japan Drug Delivery Meeting in Maui, HI, at the Royal Lahaina hotel with Bob and Laura Langer (December 1991)

Academie des Alpilles, St Rémy en Provence, France. Participants to the meeting including Prof Françoise Falson-Rieg (sitting in the middle, now Professor at the University of Lyon), and Drs Lisa Brannon-Peppas and Nicholas Peppas (May 1991)

Lecture at the 25th Journees Galeniques Meeting, St. Rémy, France. Starting in 1967 these meetings of the Académie des Alpilles were organized annually by Gattefossé of Lyon, France. The gracious host of these meetings was Mr Marcel Gattefossé (1918-2003), the visionary leader of the Gattefossé company. Held at the Mas Balille in St Rémy en Provence these exclusive scientific meetings have led to publication of more than 30 booklets (Bulletin Gattefossé) on the future of pharmaceutical sciences.

Joint USA/Czechoslovak Workshop on Novel Polymers and Properties for Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Prague, Czechoslovakia

Plenary lecture by N Peppas (December 1990)

Joint USA/Czechoslovak Workshop on Novel Polymers and Properties for Biotechnology ad Bioengineering, Prague, Czechoslovakia From left: Drs Vacik, Vondreacek, Brynda, Krotochvil (then Director of the Institute of Macromolecular Sciences of the Czech Academy), Peska, Karel Dusek (grand man of polymer sciences, now professor at Charles University), ?, Chytry, Dan Urry (University of Alabama), Fournier, Ilavsky, Garrell, Kahovec, Stu Cooper (now Ohio State University), Alexander Svec (now University of California at Berkeley), Karel Ulbrech, Nicholas Peppas, Don Lyman (University of Utah), Benes, Bob Lenz (University of Massachusetts), Linda Cima-Griffith (MIT), Ralph Ottenbrite (Virginia Commonwealth University), Rypacek, Cefalin, Houska, Stol and Horak. Absent: David Tirrell (CalTech) (December 1990)

Three collaborators of the Peppas laboratory at the 10th Advanced Course on Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Italian Chemical Society, Bressanone, Italy, June 6, 1990. From left: Lauretta Maggi (now Professor at the University of Pavia), Didi Sangalli (now Professor at the University of Milan) and Patrizia Santi (now Professor at the University of Parma). Sitting at the table behind them is Paolo Giunchedi (now Professor at the University of Sassari). All four spent some time in our laboratories and have written publications with our students or with Dr Peppas. (June 1990)

10th Advanced Course on Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Italian Chemical Society, Bressanone, Italy. Professors Francesco Veronese (Padova) and Aldo LaManna (Pavia) (June 1990)