After 39 years of distinguished service to the students, faculty and staff at the University of Washington School of Pharmacy, Professor Larry Bauer retired June 30, 2019. Over the course of his academic career, Larry made many notable contributions to the department, school, university and broader community. Larry is among the most recognized pharmacists in the field of clinical pharmacokinetics. His body of work has greatly advanced the practice of clinical pharmacy and patient care.
Larry received his Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of Washington in 1977 and his PharmD from the University of Kentucky in 1980. During his time in Kentucky, he also completed his Clinical Pharmacy Residency with the UK Clinical Pharmacokinetics Program. At UK, his academic advisor was Robert A. Blouin, PharmD, and his residency preceptor was Paul F. Parker, ScD.
Larry joined the faculty at UW in 1980 as an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice. During this time, he also held an adjunct appointment with the UW School of Medicine as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Laboratory Medicine. In 1986, Larry was promoted to Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice and Adjunct Associate Professor of Laboratory Medicine. In 2001, Larry was promoted to Professor of Pharmacy (2001-present) and Adjunct Professor of Laboratory Medicine (2001-2015). During his tenure at UW, Larry has been extensively involved in the training of future pharmacists in the bachelor’s degree program, post-baccalaureate PharmD program, as well as the entry-level PharmD program. His role as an educator involved classroom instruction, clinical rotation precepting, and curriculum design. He has also mentored three post-doctoral fellows in clinical pharmacokinetics who currently work as university faculty or pharmaceutical industry scientists. Overall, he has had an immense impact on the training of pharmacists, especially for those who received their education in Washington State.
Over the course of his career, Larry received several notable professional honors. These include: Fellow, Association of Clinical Scientists (1988), Fellow, American College of Clinical Pharmacology (1989), Fellow, American College of Clinical Pharmacy (1992) and recipient of the Drug Therapy Research Award, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Research and Education Foundation. Larry published 75 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 76 abstracts and numerous book chapters. In 2001, he published the book Applied Clinical Pharmacokinetics (now in its third edition), and in 2006 he published a handbook entitled Clinical Pharmacokinetics. Larry has also made great contributions to the field of Clinical Pharmacokinetics. Early in his career, he identified the interference of phenytoin oral absorption by the concurrent use of enteral feeding and investigated the influences of obesity on aminoglycoside, vancomycin, and theophylline dosing. These discoveries changed clinical practice and inspired many clinicians and investigators to conduct many follow-up investigations in the last 3 decades. His work has helped define and refine the approach for therapeutic drug monitoring of a number of drugs in clinical practice including, aminoglycosides, vancomycin, digoxin, and theophylline. Recently, Larry’s work involved the development of erythropoietin as a neuroprotective agent for perinatal asphyxia using both animal models and human subjects and the study of drug interactions for various agents. Since 1988, Larry has been the author of the Clinical Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics chapter in Pharmacotherapy (aka DiPiro), the gold standard textbook for pharmacy curricula all over the world, for 11 editions. His influence in advancing clinical practice and improving patient care has been significant.
Since joining the University of Washington, Larry has served the Department, School and University in a variety of capacities. This includes member of the DOP Instructional Workload Committee and member of the DOP Pharmacotherapy Coordination Committee. Larry has also participated in the Curricular Innovations Clinical and Population Therapeutics Committee, SOP Curriculum Committee, SOP Clinical Affiliate Faculty Committee and reviewer for the UW Research Royalty Fund. His professional service has included membership on the Editorial Boards for both Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. In addition, he has been a reviewer for numerous professional and scientific publications including: American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, Clinical Pharmacokinetics, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, Pharmacotherapy, Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Annals of Pharmacotherapy. Larry has also served as Regent, American College of Clinical Pharmacology, Chair, American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) Research Affairs Committee, Vice-chair, ACCP Awards Committee and was a Member of several other association committees including ACCP Research Affairs Committee, ACCP Fellowship Review Committee, and ACCP Nominations Committee.
We congratulate Larry on the impact he has made at the School, University and greater community level as an educator, scholar and colleague.