VINCENT S. VENTURELLA, PH.D.

Dr. Vincent S. Venturella’s idea of retirement was to set up a consulting business and become an adjunct faculty member at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. Venturella– recipient of the School of Pharmacy’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1992– is the kind of person who cured his boredom while recovering from a heart attack in the mid-70s by developing a biomedical telemetry system for eight emergency rescue squads in New Jersey (where he lives and volunteered as an emergency medical technician) and then trained them to use it. Venturella earned a Bachelor’s, Master’s, and a Ph.D. in pharmacy from the University of Pittsburgh in 1954, 1956 and 1961, respectively. Even as a student at Carrick High School, Venturella said it seemed obvious he was headed for a research career. He credits former School of Pharmacy professor and dean, Joseph Bianculli and several other faculty members with keeping him on that track. Despite a busy research career, Venturella managed to find time for another love–teaching. He taught at Fordham University in New York from 1960-1963, became an analytical research chemist at Abbott Laboratories in Chicago, then left in 1964 to teach at Temple University in Philadelphia.


		Dr. Vincent S. Venturella’s idea of retirement was to set up a consulting business and become an adjunct faculty member at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. Venturella– recipient of the School of Pharmacy’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1992– is the kind of person who cured his boredom while recovering from a heart attack in the mid-70s by developing a biomedical telemetry system for eight emergency rescue squads in New Jersey (where he lives and volunteered as an emergency medical technician) and then trained them to use it. Venturella earned a Bachelor’s, Master’s, and a Ph.D. in pharmacy from the University of Pittsburgh in 1954, 1956 and 1961, respectively. Even as a student at Carrick High School, Venturella said it seemed obvious he was headed for a research career. He credits former School of Pharmacy professor and dean, Joseph Bianculli and several other faculty members with keeping him on that track. Despite a busy research career, Venturella managed to find time for another love–teaching. He taught at Fordham University in New York from 1960-1963, became an analytical research chemist at Abbott Laboratories in Chicago, then left in 1964 to teach at Temple University in Philadelphia.		Three years later, he moved to New Jersey to become manager of analytical research at Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. He took a yearlong break to organize a New York City research facility for the Federal Bureau of Customs laboratory system, then returned to Hoffmann-La Roche as manager of analytical development. He became senior research fellow, then semi-retired in 1985 to work for inhalant anesthetic developer Ohmeda (formerly Anaquest). Degradation of anesthetics in the breathing circuit during anesthesia has been one of Venturella’s areas of expertise. While at Hoffmann-La Roche, he specialized in quantitative analysis of fluorine groups in pharmaceutical products by nuclear magnetic resonance. A longtime expert in Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Venturella has carried that interest into his consulting venture, Ventura Associates. GMP is a favorite buzzword of the federal Food and Drug Administration these days, said Venturella, as the agency cracks down on drug manufacturers to ensure quality. That means a good deal of work for people like him. "I will never really retire," he said.


	VINCENT S. VENTURELLA, PH.D.