Honorary Membership
2025 APhA Honorary Membership Recipient
Steve Zigler, Ph.D.
Steve Zigler, Ph.D., is the Chief Scientific Officer for Siemens PETNET Solutions in Knoxville, Tennessee. In his 30+ year career, he has played a pivotal role in the approval and commercialization of PET radiopharmaceuticals, including the first FDA approval of a PET radiopharmaceutical in a hospital setting. These efforts helped establish safe manufacturing standards for this class of products and catalyzed the evolution of a nationwide network of distribution facilities for PET radiopharmaceuticals.
Throughout his career, Dr. Zigler has cultivated close connections between pharmacy practice and drug manufacturing. He is a volunteer on the USP committee of experts where he focuses on chapters and monographs for PET radiopharmaceuticals and non-radioactive kits used in the preparation of non-PET radiopharmaceuticals. His recent efforts led to the formation of a USP panel of nuclear pharmacists for the development of a new chapter for the preparation, compounding, dispensing, and repackaging of radiopharmaceuticals. These efforts promise to end decades of conflicting practice standards for nuclear pharmacy.
Dr. Zigler is a founding board member and currently co-Director of the Coalition of PET Drug Manufacturers, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the safe manufacturing of PET radiopharmaceuticals under FDA regulation. With 32 academic and commercial members across 100+ manufacturing facilities, the Coalition’s efforts have fostered effective communications with the FDA related to good manufacturing practice regulations and marketing authorization applications.
Zigler’s work at PETNET has focused on the commercialization of PET radiopharmaceuticals where he was instrumental in the development of the first commercial generic drug approval for [F 18]FDG, the most widely used PET radiopharmaceutical in the US. He is an active committee member in the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging and holds five patents. He has published numerous manuscripts and posters, as well as book chapters in the seminal textbook on nuclear pharmacy.
About
Honorary Membership in the American Pharmacists Association is conferred by the APhA Board of Trustees upon individuals, either within the profession of pharmacy or outside of it, whose activities and achievements have had a significant impact upon public health, the profession, and its practitioners.
Evaluation Criteria
Individuals nominated for Honorary Membership shall meet the following criteria:
Individual is not a pharmacist or is a non-American pharmacist.
Individual has documented activity that has significantly impacted public health or has created or supported the expanding role of pharmacists, the profession, or Association.
Awarding of the designation to the individual will advance the Association’s public perception.
The Board of Trustees may make exceptions to the above criteria, except for the second bullet.
Nomination process
The nominator is responsible for submitting a complete award nomination.
The nomination is to include the following items:
A letter from the nominator describing the most important achievements of the nominee and explaining why the nominee meets the criteria for the award
Letters of recommendation are optional; two letters are preferred with a maximum of six accepted letters
A current curriculum vitae or detailed résumé
Selection process
The selection is made by the APhA Board of Trustees based upon careful review of complete nominations.
Nature of award
The honor, first presented in 1856 and conferred at each APhA Annual Meeting & Exposition, consists of a plaque, a complimentary APhA Annual Meeting & Exposition registration and reimbursement for meeting-related travel expenses, according to current travel policies and up to the maximum amount budgeted by APhA.
Past Honorees
2023 John A. Witkowski, Jr. and Lee Ann Stember
2022 Joseph Janela and Bruce F. Kneeland
2021 John Clymer, USA and Eric Johnson, USA
2019 Kathy Keough, USA and Linda Gibson, USA
2018 Partricia Worthen, USA
2016 Kristen G. Betts, USA
2015 Roger Lea Williams, USA
2014 Benjamin Jacobs, USA, and N. Lee Rucker, USA
2013 Frank Bennicasa, USA
2012 CAPT S. Miles Rudd, USA
2010 Mark B. McClellan, USA
2007 Peter M. Fernandes, USA
2006 William L. Atkinson, USA
2005 Edward G. Feldmann, USA
2005 A. J. M. (Ton) Hoek, the Netherlands
2004 Richard H. Carmona, USA
2002 Peter J. Kielgast, Denmark
2001 David G. Schulke, USA
2000 Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, USA
2000 Donna E. Shalala, USA
1999 José Manuel Cárdenas, Mexico
1999 Dieter Steinbach, Germany
1997 Rep. Henry A. Waxman, USA
1996 Leroy C. Fevang, Canada
1996 Nils-Olaf Strandqvist, Sweden
1995 Thomas R. Fulda, USA
1992 Paul. L. O’Brien, Esquire, USA
1991 Sen. David H. Pryor, USA
1990 C. Everett Koop, USA
1989 Stanley Siegelman, USA
1987 J. H. M. Martens, the Netherlands
1987 Shoji Shibata, Japan
1986 Arthur Hull Hayes, Jr., USA
1985 Charles A. LeMaistre, USA
1982 Hector Zayas-Bazan y Perdomo, USA
1981 Mary Kelly Mullane, USA
1979 C. Joseph Stetler, USA
1979 Charles C. Edwards, USA
1976 Desmond Lewis, Great Britain
1975 Frederick M. Garfield, USA
1971 Kozaburo Takeda, Japan
1971 Morizo Ishidate, Japan
1969 John C. Turnbull, Canada
1969 J. H. M. A. Winters, the Netherlands
1967 Winton D. Rankin, USA
1967 Alberto Garcia Ortiz, Spain
1966 Gen-Ichiro Fukuchi, Japan
1965 Svend A. Schou, Denmark
1963 George P. Larrick, USA
1962 Vice President Hubert Humphrey, USA
1962 Sir Hugh N. Linstead, Great Britain
1955 George D. Armstrong, USA
1937 A. U. R. Wasicky, Austria
1930 Armando S. Parado, Chile
1929 Juan Manuel Noriega, Mexico
1927 John Cameron, Great Britain
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