Ashim K. Mitra is Professor and Chair of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA. He was named one of two recipients for the 2007 ARVO/Pfizer Ophthalmics Translational Research Award He is the Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Research for the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Director of Translational Research at UMKC School of Medicine. He is also the University of Missouri Curators' Professor of Pharmacy and UMKC's Chairman of Pharmaceutical Sciences He is the author and coauthor over 250 research articles, book chapters and review papers. Dr Mitra is the recipient of a number of research awards from the National Institutes of Health, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and numerous pharmaceutical organizations He is the 1999 recipient of the University Trustee's Faculty Research award from the University of Missouri and 1992 recipient of National Collegiate Inventor of the Year Award from the National Invention Center and the BF Goodrich Corporation He has served as the editor of Ophthalmic Drug Delivery Systems (CRC Press) ,which is currently in its second edition and coeditor of Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews (Wiley).