The GPEN Executive Committee and the College of Pharmacy at The University of Michigan are pleased to announce that The University of Michigan will host the 4th GPEN Meeting on November 6-8, 2002. For the convenience of international participants, GPEN2002 has been scheduled just prior to the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting in Toronto, Canada (November 10-14, 2002).
In 1996, sixteen universities from North America, Europe and Asia agreed to establish a new not-for-profit organization called the Globalization of Pharmaceutics Education Network (GPEN). GPEN was created for the sole purpose of "fostering and facilitating scientific exchange in the fields of pharmaceutics and biopharmaceutics at an international level". The rationale for establishing GPEN was in part based on the fact that pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, which hire many of the graduates of these universities, have become highly globalized. Therefore, the founders of GPEN felt that future graduates of pharmaceutics and biopharmaceutics programs needed increased exposure to science and culture at an international level.
To achieve its objective of "fostering and facilitating scientific exchange in the fields of pharmaceutics and biopharmaceutics at an international level", GPEN has sponsored to date three international meetings; the 1st GPEN Meeting was held at The University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS, USA) in October, 1996; the 2nd GPEN Meeting was held at the ETH (Zurich, Switzerland) in September, 1998; and the 3rd GPEN Meeting was held at the University of Uppsala (Uppsala, Sweden) in September, 2000. These meetings were organized so as to maximize scientific, as well as, cultural exchange between the participating graduate students, faculty and industrial observers. Two days of the meeting were set aside for scientific presentations (poster and podium) by graduate students. The third day of the meeting was set aside for faculty-taught short courses on topics chosen by the participating graduate students. Social and cultural events were also an integral part of the meeting format.
These conferences serve as a premier meeting ground and forum for pharmaceutical sciences research and education, providing its 31 member institutions with an arena for graduate students to share new ideas, hear international leaders in various research specialties, and network with current and future pharmaceutical scientists from industry and academia. This meeting attracts over 200 pharmaceutical scientists from many institutions in United States and around the world.
The GPEN 2002 Program includes:
	1. Poster and podia presentations by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows
	2. Seven short courses
	3. Keynote address by Dr. Arthur Franke, Head of Genomics and Proteomics at Pfizer, Inc.
	4. Banquet dinner
	5. Pfizer company tour
	6. Social Events
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