Michigan Pharmacy Candidate Wins Inaugural Merck Chemists of Color Award

Pharmaceutical Sciences PhD candidate Mery Vet George De la Rosa is one of 12 students from around the nation selected for the inaugural Merck Chemists of Color Award.

This award recognizes underrepresented chemistry PhD students (3rd year and above) and postdocs. Recipients are given the opportunity to work with a Merck mentor and networking opportunities, as well as travel funds to attend the 2021 Merck Award Symposium, where they will present their research.

Recipients of the award are selected based on their research accomplishments. Recipients must also demonstrate a clear vision for how the award would impact their career and enable them to give back to their community to help fellow underrepresented individuals, an appreciation for how the program would help them despite challenges they faced as a person of color, and demonstrate their potential to become research pioneers and scientific innovators.

Mery Vet was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She graduated from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus with a bachelor’s in interdisciplinary studies in Natural Sciences in 2015 and completed a master’s in industrial pharmacy at the UPR-Medical Sciences Campus in 2018.

She is currently a rising 4^th-year graduate student in the department of Pharmaceutical Sciences under the mentorship of Dr. Gus R. Rosania, where she studies intracellular drug accumulation of long-term treatment regimens in vital organs. Specifically researching how the variations of L-Carnitine levels in the blood can serve to identify individuals at increased risks of adverse drug reactions.

Mery Vet is very actively engaged in extracurricular activities and community outreach. She has been a member of the AAPS U-M student chapter since 2018 and currently holds the position of Vice-Chair in the executive board. She is committed to promoting diversity within the pharmaceutical sciences program, and is involved with the recruitment process planning and outreach to prospective students. Mery Vet has also participated in mentoring programs, webinars and forums sharing her experience as an underrepresented minority PhD student, hoping to serve as an example for others.