Heartfelt homecoming

John W. Kozarich ’71, who has served as chair, CEO, or director of seven companies during his distinguished 47-year career in academia and the biopharmaceutical industry, and who endowed Boston College’s Department of Engineering Chair in 2021, returned to the Heights in late October for a three-day visit that included student and faculty meetings, a chemistry lecture, a football game, and some ruminating about the University, past and present.

A major item on his itinerary was a series of meetings with the seven current Kozarich Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows—the result of the bioscience executive’s initial program funding in 1999 that provides fellowships for chemistry majors to work in BC research labs—and with Glenn R. Gaudette, the inaugural holder of the John W. Kozarich ’71 Chair, as well as the students in the program that launched in 2021.

“I’m very proud of BC’s Engineering Department and its Human-Centered Engineering major,” said Kozarich, a New Jersey native. “I tend to do things at the interface—that place where independent systems meet and connect—and engineering is a dream interface.

“I’ve been very impressed with Glenn’s innovative approaches, and in particular, the student trips he has led to villages in foreign countries where they have solved important local health problems through engineering methods that truly reflect its service focus.”

Kozarich noted that his funding for the summer fellowships was motivated by both his inability to afford to work for free during summers as an undergraduate, and as a tribute to his undergraduate research experience in BC’s Chemistry Department, which he credits with planting the seeds for his own remarkable career in academic and pharmaceutical research.

“BC has changed for the better since my time on campus,” said Kozarich, who attended BC on scholarship.  “There’s a strong sense of intellectual excellence, and a firm commitment to the betterment of others—a deeper moral compass today—that’s not seen in all institutions of higher education.

“The Chemistry Department is terrific, there’s more funding, and I was especially pleased to see so many women in science who are making a difference.”

Kozarich, internationally known for his work on enzyme mechanisms and on the chemistry of DNA-cleaving antitumor drugs, received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry summa cum laude, was selected as a Phi Beta Kappa honoree, and named a Scholar of the College while at BC. He then earned a doctorate in biological chemistry from MIT, where he was a National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellow.

Following two years as a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University, Kozarich joined Yale University’s School of Medicine as an assistant professor of pharmacology, and after rising to the rank of full professor, moved to the University of Maryland-College Park in 1984, where he served as a professor of chemistry and biochemistry for 11 years. He is now an adjunct professor of chemical biology and medicinal chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Pharmacy, where he has an active role in teaching graduate students focused on case studies in drug discovery.

His lengthy resume includes serving as vice president of research at Alkermes, a Waltham, Mass.-based global biopharmaceutical company developing innovative medicines in the field of neuroscience; vice president of biochemistry at Merck Research Laboratories, where he led drug development programs and strategic collaborations with other pharmaceutical and bioscience companies; and chair and president of ActivX Biosciences Inc., a biopharmaceutical company that used its unique technology to identify drug candidates in the protein kinase and protease families with a focus on hematology, oncology, metabolic, and inflammatory diseases.

Since 2003, Kozarich has served on the board, and currently is the chair, of Ligand Pharmaceuticals, which enables scientific advancement through support of the clinical development of high-value medicines. He also chairs the therapeutics company Curza Global, LLC, of which he is a former CEO.

In 2007, BC presented Kozarich with an Alumni Achievement Award for his excellence in both professional and academic disciplines.  A 2009 recipient of an American Cancer Society Faculty Research Award, and the 1988 Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry from the Division of Biological Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (ACS), Kozarich was also recognized with the Distinguished Scientist Award of the San Diego Section of the ACS for his work to identify protein kinase and protease targets for screening drug candidates.

During his campus visit, Kozarich noted that one of his most treasured personal and business friendships is with fellow 1971 alumnus John LaMattina, a trustee associate who supports BC’s graduate program through fellowships to doctoral students in synthetic organic chemistry.

“When I was at BC, there were eight chemistry majors, and four went on to graduate school,” said Kozarich.  “We did all right.”