Darrell R. Abernethy, M.D., Ph.D., has been elected president of the 2005 – 2010 US Pharmacopeial Convention at the recently concluded Convention 2005 meeting in Washington, D.C. Dr. Abernethy is Chief of the Laboratory of Clinical Investigation at the National Institute on Aging. “I greatly look forward to implementing the resolutions passed at this Convention and helping USP achieve its goals and stated objective of reaching the highest standards,” said Dr. Abernethy in his acceptance speech at the USP Convention.
Dr. Abernethy has been a USP volunteer for nearly 20 years. Dr. Abernethy served on USP’s Expert Committee on Gerontology since 1990 and chaired the committee beginning in 1999. He also served on USP’s Medicare Model Guidelines Expert Committee in 2004.
“Dr. Abernethy brings a rich knowledge of USP and deep understanding of clinical pharmacology to the Board of Trustees,” said Roger L. Williams, M.D., executive vice president and chief executive officer of USP. “His expertise and leadership will be greatly valued in the next five-year term.” As president of the Convention, Dr. Abernethy will serve one elected term and preside at all meetings of the USP Convention. He will be a voting member, ex officio, of the board of trustees and may appoint committees of the Convention not provided for in the USP bylaws.
Prior to joining the National Institute on Aging, Dr. Abernethy served on the faculties of Tufts University School of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, and Brown University School of Medicine. In 1994, Dr. Abernethy became the Francis Cabell Brown Professor and Director of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at Georgetown University School of Medicine, where he served until 1999, at which time he assumed his current post.
Dr. Abernethy received his M.D. (and is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha) and Ph.D. (Pharmacology) degrees from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in 1976. Further training was in Internal Medicine at Jackson Memorial Hospital/University of Miami in Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology at the Massachusetts General Hospital.