Distinguished Achievement Award
Robert Z. Gussin, Ph.D.
Robert Z. Gussin (Ph.D. 1965) joined Johnson & Johnson in 1974 as executive director of research at McNeil Laboratories. He was promoted to vice president of scientifi c affairs of Johnson & Johnson, then corporate vice president of science and technology and chief scientifi c offi cer from 1986 until his retirement in 2000.
Gussin earned his Bachelor of Science in pharmacy and his Master of Science in pharmacology at Duquesne University in his hometown of Pittsburgh. He earned his doctorate in pharmacology from the University of Michigan, then completed a post-doctoral fellowhip at the State University of New York Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse. He joined Lederle Laboratories in 1967, and was promoted to director of cardio-renal therapeutics there in 1973. In 1995, Duquesne University presented Gussin with an honorary doctor of science degree.
Gussin currently is chair of the Advisory Board of the Department of Pharmacology at the U-M Medical School; chair of the Pharmacy School Advisory Committee and a trustee at Duquesne University; vice chair of the University of Notre Dame Graduate School Advisory Council; and a member of the Visiting Committee of the Harvard University School of Public Health. He also works with NASA on the Human Space Flight Advisory Committee and the Aerospace Medicine and Occupational Health Committee.
Gussin belongs to several professional societies including the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and the American Society of Nephrology.