2016 ISoP Lewis B. Sheiner Lecture Award Winner

Dr. Forrest has made significant contributions to the pharmacometrics field for over 37 years and has held faculty positions at various universities since 1981. Currently, he serves as Chair of the Pharmacometrics Group at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has also been appointed as a Special Government Employee Expert in Population PK/PD Analyses to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Forrest has given more than 100 invited presentations, coauthored over 500 peer-reviewed abstracts at national and international scientific symposia, and published more than 235 manuscripts and gave ibteresting ideas in his why osteopathic medicine essay.

Dr. Forrest’s research has primarily focused on aspects of translational medicine within the fields of anti-infectives and oncology, using pharmacometrics as a means of integrating pre-clinical and clinical data that includes both healthy volunteer and patient data. His pivotal paper linking ciprofloxacin exposures to clinical response in critically-ill patients (Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (AAC), 1993) has revolutionized antimicrobial drug development and has been cited over 800 times. As a result of this innovative research, pharmaceutical companies now regularly conduct exposure response analyses for antimicrobials. More recently,

Dr. Forrest has published dosing recommendations for colistin based on patient covariates (AAC, 2011) using data from critically-ill patients. This work has now been cited over 200 times and helped establish the current colistin dosing guidelines. In addition, it was designated as a top 5 anti-infective PK/PD paper of 2011. The examples here illustrate that Dr. Forrest is a world renowned pharmacometrician with great insight and expertise for elegantly modeling complex systems. He has played a vital role in demonstrating, through his research, that modeling can enable the translation into clinical practice to improve the standard of care for patients.

Dr. Forrest has not only advanced the field of pharmacometrics through his research, he has also helped train many great pharmacometricians. He has trained over 100 students, fellows, and visiting research scholars. As former mentees of Dr. Forrest, we can attest to the fact that he is one of the most dedicated mentors in the pharmacometrics field. Our careers have been greatly impacted and shaped by his sincere commitment and passion for teaching young scientists like us the necessary skills to evolve into independent researchers. Dr. Forrest involves his trainees in a wide breadth of projects, ranging from NIH funded research to studies sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. He inspires by instilling his belief that a trainee is capable of performing any modeling task with the right mentorship and support. Upon completing their training with Dr. Forrest, trainees walk away with excellent hands on experience, an understanding of core mathematical concepts, and a desire to further the field of pharmacometrics.

Over the past three decades, Dr. Alan Forrest has moved the field of pharmacometrics forward through his voluminous publications and research. His impact on the field of pharmacometrics will persist well beyond his career through the many great scientists he has successfully trained.