Pharmacy Professor Funds Scholarships

The School of Pharmacy faculty member added $50,000 to the Mahmoud ElSohly Family Pharmacy Scholarship Endowment, which he established through the UM Foundation in 2004.

"This is a way for me to pay back and help others pursue their education," ElSohly said. "I received my Ph.D. through a scholarship, for which I am forever grateful."

Recipients of the scholarship are required to be full-time students who have been admitted to the school's professional pharmacy program, with first preference going to students from Lafayette County.

Donna Strum, the school's dean, expressed gratitude for ElSohly's vision for the future.

"Dr. ElSohly's enduring generosity ensures that generations of young people, who may not have had the opportunity otherwise, will now be able to realize their dream of becoming pharmacists," she said. "Dr. ElSohly is a respected member of our faculty and an asset to our school and university community at large."

ElSohly is the longtime director of the Marijuana Project and a renowned expert in the chemistry of cannabis. He holds more than 40 patents dealing with the processing, testing and detection of drugs of abuse, along with other patents associated with biologically active natural products and compositions for the treatment of cancer and other diseases.

Besides his work at Ole Miss, ElSohly is president and laboratory director of ElSohly Laboratories Inc.

He has authored more than 400 scholarly articles and given more than 300 presentations at meetings of professional societies relative to drug discovery, analysis and metabolism, and many of his articles deal with forensic issues of drugs of abuse. He is constantly presenting his research findings at national and international scientific conferences.

ElSohly is a member of many scholarly scientific societies and was recognized in 1995 by The Scientist and Science Watch as the second-most cited author in forensic sciences in the world for the period 1981-93. He is also recognized in the October 2004 edition of the Journal of Analytical Toxicology as one of the top 10 Most Cited Authors and Most Prolific Authors in the journal between 1981 and 2003.

The professor received a bachelor's degree in pharmacy and pharmaceutical chemistry and a master's in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences from Cairo University in Egypt and a doctorate in pharmacognosy from the University of Pittsburgh. He is certified by the American Board of Forensic Medicine and the American College of Forensic Examiners.

Gifts to the Mahmoud ElSohly Family Pharmacy Scholarship Endowment can be made by sending a check with the fund's name written on the memo line to the University of Mississippi Foundation, 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS 38655; or give online here.

Top: Pharmaceutics professor Mahmoud ElSohly (second from left) discusses a research project with students at the inaugural UM Research Showcase. ElSohly has made a major gift to support scholarships for students pursuing degrees in the School of Pharmacy. Photo by Bill Dabney/UM Foundation