APGI 1988 meeting. In front of the building of the School of Pharmacy of the University of Paris-Sud in Chatenay-Malabry, France: From left: Nicholas Peppas, Patrizia Santi (now professor at the University of Parma), Paolo Colombo (now professor at the University of Parma), Robert Gurny (now professor at the University of Geneva), Ferdinando Giordano (now professor at the University of Parma), Ubaldo Conte (now professor at the University of Pavia), Carla Caramella (now professor at the University of Pavia) and Pierluigi Catellani (now professor emeritus at the University of Parma) (May 1988)

Pilgrimage of two avid operaphiles, Professor Ubaldo Conte (of the University of Pavia, Italy) and Professor Peppas, to Puccini/Verdi/Giordano/Cilea/Mascagni/Leoncavallo country… Here in front of the house of Giuseppe Verdi in Roncole Verdi close to Bussetto (province of Parma) (March 1988)

July 9, 1987 A photograph just before the final dinner of the Biointeractions ’87 meeting organized by Butterworths, publisher of the journal Biomaterials, at the University of Cambridge, UK. From left front row: Prof Garth Hastings (European editor), Anne Thomas and Claire Neurath of Butterworths, Prof Robert Langer (US editor), Prof Jim Anderson (Case Western Reserve University), Mary Korndorffer (publisher), Prof Nicholas Peppas (US editor). Back row: Chris Rawlins (publisher), Prof David Williams (University of Liverpool), Prof Jan Feijen (Twente University), Prof Bob Davis (University of Nottingham) and Charles Fry of Butterworths.

July 7, 1987 Butterworths ’87 meeting at the University of Cambridge, UK, July 7, 1987. From left: Prof Jan Feijen (Twente University, Enschede, the Netherlands), Prof Robert Langer (MIT), Prof. Marcel Josefowitz (University of Paris-Nord, France) and Prof Nicholas Peppas

From the farewell party for Nicholas Peppas at the end of his sabbatical year at the University of Paris-Sud in Chatenay-Malabry (June-December 1986).

December 1986 Farewell party at the University of Paris-Sud. From left: Patrick Couvreur, Nicholas Peppas and Francis Puisieux

December 1986 Farewell party at the University of Paris-Sud. Among others Lilian Roblot, Gilles Ponchel (now Professor at the University of Paris-Sud), Nicholas Peppas, Catherine Dubernet (now Professor at the University of Paris-Sud), Olivier Saslawski and Prof Francis Puisieux.

From the farewell party for Nicholas Peppas at the end of his sabbatical year at the University of Paris-Sud in Chatenay-Malabry (June-December 1986). Sentimental departure with Francis Puisieux, Nicholas Peppas and Dominique Duchêne. These three, Patrick Couvreur and their students wrote together 27 original papers and 36 abstracts and preprints (December 1986)

From the farewell party for Nicholas Peppas at the end of his sabbatical year at the University of Paris-Sud in Chatenay-Malabry (June-December 1986). Professor Dominique Duchêne pours champagne to Nicholas Peppas’ glass as he continues analyzing solute diffusion and release (December 1986)

From the farewell party for Nicholas Peppas at the end of his sabbatical year at the University of Paris-Sud in Chatenay-Malabry (June-December 1986). The professorial triumvirate of the University of Paris-Sud Pharmacy Department in the 80s, 90s and 00s consisted of (from left) Dominique Duchêne, Francis Puisieux and Patrick Couvreur. All three are major world figures in pharmaceutical sciences, not only for major contributions in bioadhesion and cyclodextrins (DD), advanced formulations and liposomes (FP) and oral delivery systems, cellular response and gene therapy (PC), but also through numerous leadership positions (President EUFEPS and APGI (DD), cabinet member in French government (FP), President GTV (PC)) and international awards (Janot Award (both FP and PC), CRS Award (PC), Nagai Award (DD), AAPS Fellow (DD and PC). (December 1986)

From the farewell party for Nicholas Peppas at the end of his sabbatical year at the University of Paris-Sud in Chatenay-Malabry (June-December 1986). Francis Puisieux, Nicholas Peppas and Dominique Duchêne share a joke while PhD student Olivier Saslawski listens. (December 1986)

From the farewell party for Nicholas Peppas at the end of his sabbatical year at the University of Paris-Sud in Chatenay-Malabry (June-December 1986). Center: Dennis Wouessidjewe (no a professor at the University of Lyon, France) and Professor Peppas (December 1986)

From the farewell party for Nicholas Peppas at the end of his sabbatical year at the University of Paris-Sud in Chatenay-Malabry (June-December 1986). Left: Gilles Ponchel (standing), then a PhD student with Dominique Duchene, now professor of pharmacy at the University of Paris-Sud. Gilles, Dominique, Nicholas and Dennis (see next picture) developed the tensiometric technique of mucoadhesive material analysis and published five papers on various aspects of the analysis. Sitting with a red sweater is Serge Segot-Chicq, who did his DEA under Nicholas’ supervision and spent 8 months at Purdue working on novel swellable systems based on ethylene-vinyl alcohol. Serge is now manager of pharmaceutical research with Sanofi-Aventis in Anthony, France. Right: Olivier Saslawski (sitting) who did his doctorate under the supervision of Nicholas and Prof. Patrick Couvreur. Olivier was the first to show that temperature sensitive carriers could be used for therapeutic protein delivery. His 1988 APGI paper on insulin delivery is one of the earliest references in the field Standing at right are Nicholas Peppas (seen partially behind Dominique Duchene), Dominique Duchene, Francis Puisieux and Patrick Couvreur. (December 1986)

The farewell party for Nicholas Peppas at the end of his sabbatical year at the University of Paris-Sud in Chatenay-Malabry (June-December 1986). Standing in the middle is then graduate student Elias Fattal, now a distinguished Professor of Pharmacy at the University of Paris-Sud and President of APGI (December 1986)

Prof Peppas giving the plenary lecture of the Fourth International Conference on Pharmaceutical Technology organized by APGI in Paris, France on June 4, 1986.

Dinner in honor of the invited speakers of the Fourth International Conference on Pharmaceutical Technology organized by APGI. This dinner was held on June 6, 1986 at the Monmarte restaurant L’Assommoir, a favorite of Parisians and especially our noble hostess Professor Dominique Duchene, President of APGI for almost two decades The restaurant was named after the seventh novel in Émile Zola's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. Usually considered one of Zola's masterpieces, the novel - a harsh and uncompromising study of alcoholism and poverty in the working-class districts of Paris - was a huge commercial success and established Zola's fame and reputation throughout France and the world. In this picture, from right: Prof Stelios Malamataris of the University of Thessaloniki, Prof Peppas, Professor Yvette Pourcelot of the University of Dijon, ?, and Professor Dominique Duchene of the University of Paris-Sud.

APV Workshop on Mucoadhesion in Köningswinter, Germany, close to Bonn. The grand master of pharmaceutical sciences Joe Robinson (right, 1936-2006) teaches Nicholas Peppas how to be a good pharmaceutical scientist. (October 1985)

On December 19, 1984, the Indianapolis Star announced in its first page the first mucoadhesive systems developed in Peppas’ laboratories, through early collaboration of Pierre Buri of the University of Geneva and our group. The very early Purdue researchers in the mucoadhesion field were Jennifer Sahlin, L. Achar, Natalie Wisniewski, Esmaiel Jabbari and Jennifer Bauerle.

Upon completion of Prof Peppas’s first sabbatical at the University of Geneva, Switzerland (August-December 1982), a good bye dinner was given in his honor. In that dinner Professor Peppas and Professor Pierre Buri read the beginning of the Iliad of Homer, Nicholas in modern Greek, Pierre in Erasmian Greek. The great collaboration between the Peppas lab and the Buri/Doelker/Gurny labs started in 1978 and continued until 2006 when the last of 37 papers, a highly cited review on chitosans, was published!

Three Genevois PhD students who did part of their PhD research under the supervision of Prof Peppas. All three spent some time in our laboratories at Purdue. From left: Bruno Gander (now Professor of Pharmacy at ETH Zurich) who worked on poly(vinyl alcohol) micromatrices for drug delivery (co-advisors: Eric Doelker and Robert Gurny), Christian Robert (now with the cantonal government in Geneva) who worked on swellable microparticles for release of poorly soluble drugs (co-advisor: Pierre Buri), and Christian Bindschaedler (now at Merck-Serono in Geneva) who worked on advanced modeling of colloidal structures and their drug partitioning (co-advisors:Eric Doelker and Robert Gurny)

Chantal Doelker (left, a scientist) and Claudine Leuthold (a PhD student) in the laboratories of Professors Buri and Doelker at the University of Geneva. (November 1982)

During Peppas’s sabbatical at the University of Geneva in 1982, his three hosts: from left, Robert Gurny (who had been earlier a postdoc at Purdue (1977-79), now Dean of Pharmacy at the University of Geneva), Pierre Buri (then Director of the labs, now retired), and Eric Doelker (then professor, later Vice-rector of the University). (September 1982)

A corner of our first lab in CMET 210 in August 1980. An early Waters GPC can be seen on the left. In those early days Peppas had two labs (210 and 212) in the second floor of the then CMET building (built in 1938). The benches had been brought from … the salvage rooms of Purdue University as there were no funds for lab building or renovation. But NSF and NIH funding had already started and the labs were very well equipped. Peppas’s office was in room 210A. One had to pass through the lab 210 to enter his office. There was no emergency exit to the corridors. These were truly different days….

Our biomedical lab in the Potter building in March 1980. At that time, Dean Hancock had allocated this lab for the biomedical and biomaterials work. Steve Ash, Ron Barile and Nicholas Peppas had their laboratories there, and most of the portable artificial kidney work was done in those labs.