NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

3/25/2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHESNorthwestern State University will hold its 16th annual Research Day Wednesday, April 9 beginning at 7:30 a.m. Research Day is sponsored by the Council for University Research Incentive Awards (CURIA) and the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at Northwestern.

All events will be held in Russell Hall and the A.A. Fredericks Center for Creative and Performing Arts and are open to the public. Presentations will run through 12:15 p.m.

"Northwestern has a active, growing research program and Research Day gives us an opportunity to showcase what our faculty and staff are doing," said Dr. Priscilla Kilcrease, acting director of research and sponsored programs at NSU. "There are a variety of presentations and will be something to appeal to anyone."

Students and faculty at Northwestern State University will share their latest work with the university community. A total of 59 presentations in all disciplines are scheduled.

Among the featured presentations will be a discussion of effective uses of technology in teaching by professor of computer information systems Dr. Jack Russell and information on the proposed Center for Complex Phenomena by faculty members Dr. Andrei Ludu, Dr. Nathan Hutchings and Dr. Darrell Fry of the College of Science and Technology.

As part of Research Day, a faculty member will be presented with the Mildred Hart Bailey Research Award. The Bailey Award is given annually to a Northwestern faculty member for outstanding research and/or distinguished artistic performance or creative work substantially completed during the past three years. Criteria for the award include: scholarly or creative significance; national, regional or local impact; originality and ingenuity of project design and critical recognition by experts in the field.

The featured speaker will be Jairaj (Jai) Mehta, president of Red River Pharma Development in Shreveport. Red River Pharma is the anchor of the new Wet Lab Science Incubator. The incubator is being developed as a part of the InterTech Science Park located near the LSU Health Sciences Center. Mehta has been in the pharmaceutical industry for almost 20 years. He has held senior management positions in several pharmaceutical firms. Mehta's responsibilities have included research and development and regulatory functions with oversight of quality and validation disciplines.

His expertise encompasses product development and regulatory filings for bulk drugs and dosage forms which include lyophilized products, suspensions, solutions, ointments, sterile powders, immediate release and modified release tablets, capsules and metered dose inhalers.

Mehta has a bachelor's in pharmacy and a master's in medicinal chemistry from Bombay University as well as a master's in biopharmaceutics from the University of Illinois. He is a registered pharmacist in the states of Arizona and Illinois.

Red River Pharma Development is a newly formed company. RRPD is part of Shreveport's Web Lab incubator and will provide product development and manufacturing services which are key parts of Louisiana's bioscience initiative. Red River Pharma Development will begin operations this year, developing early stages of products targeted for development and manufacture in a new facility to be completed next fall. The company's potential clients include biotech startups and other pharmaceutical companies.

For more information on Research Day, call (318) 357-5222.

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