September 6, 2006 Source: :
http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/060906-2535.asp New hub for pharmacy education and research opens at U of T State-of-the-art Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building officially open
Sep 6/06 The new Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building at the University of Toronto, which officially opens its doors today, embodies the university's commitment to providing a first-class education to students says U of T president David Naylor. "This outstanding facility provides a state-of-the-art environment that will enhance the student experience both inside and outside of the classroom. It will also boost morale for our current faculty and staff, and facilitate recruitment of the best and brightest faculty and students in future." Located at the southeast corner of the University of Toronto, the Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building is a gateway to the campus, situated in the heart of the health sciences district, close to medicine and nursing and the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research. The 15,600 square metre (167,000 square feet) structure is home to more than 1,300 students, faculty and staff. The increase in infrastructure has allowed the faculty to double its student enrolment in the undergraduate pharmacy program and significantly increase its number of graduate students. The $75-million project was funded by the Ontario government, the university's infrastructure investment fund and the support of private donors. Pharmacy alumnus and founder of generic pharmaceutical manufacturer Novopharm, Leslie Dan donated more than $13 million to the project. "The new pharmacy facility at the University of Toronto will ensure Ontario remains a leader in the education of pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists, says David Caplan, minister of public infrastructure renewal. "The Ontario government is extremely proud of its partnership with the University of Toronto and our investment in the Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building." The Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building is the first Canadian commission for renowned British architects Foster and Partners, designers of the Reichstag renovation in Berlin and the Great Court of the British Museum in London. The building is divided into three separate areas to accommodate the Faculty's diverse teaching and research needs. Undergraduate lecture theatres are located in the basement levels; the five-storey colonnaded area houses study and administrative offices; and research and teaching laboratories and faculty offices are located throughout the upper seven storeys. "This building will not only become the educational powerhouse of some 1,000 pharmacy undergraduates and 200 post-graduate students as well as many dedicated and inspiring professors - attracting the best of them, but also it will assure the proper education of our future pharmacists, preparing them to practice in the healthcare environment of the 21st century
- an environment which will offer new models, new paradigms and close cooperation with other health care providers and governmental agencies," says Dan. "We knew that pharmacists were increasingly being called upon to help manage complex medication regimes for their patients and that more and more people were turning to their neighbourhood pharmacist for trusted counseling on a variety of health matters. The impetus for this wonderful new building was to satisfy more of the demand for pharmacists - and this is what we have been doing ever since," says K. Wayne Hindmarsh, dean of the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. "In anticipation of the facilities that this new building would offer, we have also been recruiting talented faculty members who will contribute to our research areas of pharmaceutical sciences, social and administrative pharmacy, and pharmacy practice." Contact: Maria Saros Leung, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, 416-946-7036; e-mail: maria.saros.leung@utoronto.ca
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