Pharmacology Graduate Students Association (PGSA)
Welcome! We are the Pharmacology Graduate Students’ Association (PGSA). We are a student-run association that organizes philanthropic, research-related, and social events throughout the year. Our events are a great way to connect with graduate students and faculty within the department.
Events
We host a number of events each year including our annual Pharmacology BBQ, student-faculty softball game, student-faculty debate, philanthropic drives and the Visions in Pharmacology (VIP) annual research day. We also organize pub nights, games nights, escape room excursions, tickets to sports games, and other events.
Visions in Pharmacology (VIP)
VIP is our largest event, which features a keynote speech from a prominent pharmacologist and gives students the opportunity to present their work to the department, with awards to the best presentations. Please see our list of past VIP keynote speakers:
- 1995 John Polanyi
S. Poon and L. Dwoskin
- 1996 Daniel Nebert
- 1997 Lee Limbird
- 1998 Frank Gonzalez
- 1999 Ferid Murad
- 2000 Marc Caron
- 2001 Karen Duff
- 2002 Ronald Estabrook
- 2003 Donald Ingram
- 2004 Etienne-Emile Baulieu
- 2005 Lee Limbird
- 2006 Richard Weinshilboum
- 2007 Edward Morgan
- 2008 Michael Salter
- 2009 Christopher Bradfield
- 2010 Sue Piper Duckles
- 2011 Richard Aster
- 2012 Roger Sunahara
- 2013 Henry Kranzler
- 2014 J. Steven Leeder
- 2015 Linda Dwoskin
- 2016 Terry Kenakin
- 2017 Peter Van Loo
- 2018 Edyth London
- 2019 Laura Bohn
PGSA Christmas Shoebox Drive
The Christmas Shoebox drive was the philanthropic event for 2017. Donations were made to Operation Christmas Child Canada. This organization distributes shoeboxes full of goodies for children in need - within Canada and around the world - aged 2 to 14 years old during the holidays. Students and faculty were asked to donate either cash or items to fill the shoeboxes. Thanks to the outstanding contributions of our students and faculty, we raised $623 in monetary donations and many in-kind donations. Our goal was 20 shoeboxes, but we were able to pack 30 shoeboxes! Thanks to everyone for making this fundraiser a huge success.
2018-2019 PGSA Executive 
Presidents: Ahmed El-Boraie; Kathy Lee
Vice-Presidents: Nicole Arguelles (Academic); Mehnaz Ahmed (Finance);
Keyue Chen (Social)
Director of Internal: Alison Jee
Director of External: Faiza Akbar
Director of Philanthropy: Marlaina Stocco
GSU Representative: Hyunjin Jeong
Site Representatives: Celina Liu; Haidy Giratallah; Megan Mio
Social Representatives: Zahra Yussuf; Marie-Eve Di Raddo
Academic Support Representative: Yuan Gao
1st Year Representatives: Dipo Oladapo; Victoria Sealey
The PGSA 201718.pdf (4.45 MB)
Contact us
If you have any questions about PGSA or about the graduate Pharmacology program, please contact us on Facebook or by email.
Join us on Facebook
Email: pgsa.toronto@gmail.com