Presented by the Social and Administrative Sciences Division of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy, the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy, and the Go Big Read initiative
Dr. John Swann, a historian at the US Food and Drug Administration will be on UW-Madison’s campus later this week. While visiting, Dr. Swann will host a public talk titled, “From Daffy’s Elixir to Dinitrophenol: Medicines and their Early Regulation in America” and present a live lecture recapping his presentation at the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy’s Annual Business Meeting.
Dr. Swann’s public talk is scheduled for Wednesday, November 13th from 2:00-3:00 p.m. in Room 1116 of Rennebohm Hall and is in association with the campus-wide Go Big Read of Poison Squad by Deborah Blum. Although covering “ethicals” and self-medication preps in the US from the eighteenth century through the 1930s, this talk will focus will on the federal role in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, up to early regulation (or the lack thereof) under the 1906 Food and Drugs Act.
AIHP’s Annual Business Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 14th at 1:00 p.m. Dr. Swann will provide a condensed presentation from his public talk, that investigates the history of pharmaceutical regulation in the United States during the the early twentieth century, to AIHP members.
Dr. John Swann has been the Historian at the US Food and Drug Administration since 1989. He earned his PhD in the History of Pharmacy and the History of Science in from the University of Wisconsin in 1985.Dr. Swann received AIHP’s Edward Kremers Award in 1989 for his book, Academic Scientists and the Pharmaceutical Industry: Cooperative Research in Twentieth-Century America. He is a member of the International Academy for the History of Pharmacy and is a past president of AIHP.
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Upcoming events of interest to pharmacists and historians of pharmacy, pharmaceuticals, medicines, science, and related fields.
May 1-4, 2025: Annual Meeting of the American Association of the History of Medicine, Boston, MA.
May 13-16, 2025: National Association of Boards of Pharmacy Annual Meeting, Fort Lauderdale, FL.
June 7-11, 2025: ASHP Pharmacy Futures Meeting, Charlotte, NC.
July 19-22, 2025: American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
December 7-11, 2025: ASHP Midyear, Las Vegas, NV.