College Mourns Passing of Beloved Teacher, Researcher Professor Emeritus Bhagavan 'Baggie' Jandhyala

UH College of Pharmacy faculty, staff and former students are mourning the sudden passing of beloved teacher, researcher, friend and mentor Professor Emeritus Bhagavan "Baggie" S. Jandhyala, Ph.D., on March 16.

Jandhyala retired in 2006 after 33 years of service to UHCOP and his chosen field of pharmacology. During his tenure at the college, Jandhyala also served as Director of the Heart & Kidney Institute, which is now run by Jandhyala's colleague and former graduate student Executive Vice Dean for Research Mustafa F. Lokhandwala, Ph.D., and Co-Director of the Pharm.D./Ph.D. program. He was a member of several notable scientific associations and honor societies, including Rho Chi, Sigma Xi, Phi Beta Delta, the American Heart Association and the New York Academy of Sciences.

Jandhyala received his pharmacy undergraduate degree from Andhra University in Waltair, India, and his master's and doctoral degrees in Pharmacology from the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pa. During Jandhyala’s career, he authored or co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, abstracts and book chapters, supervised more than a dozen graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, and secured grant funding for his research into hypertension, diabetes and obesity from such notable organizations as the National Institutes of Health and AstraZeneca.

Jandhyala’s pharmacological expertise garnered invitations to present his research at conferences and symposiums around the world, including multiple trips to France, Italy, his native India, Sweden, Switzerland and Germany, to name a few – opportunities that also allowed him to feed his passion for traveling.

In honor of Jandhyala's impact on their lives and scientific careers, his former students, fellow faculty members, friends and family members banded together to establish the Dr. Bhagavan S. Jandhyala Endowed Scholarship in 2006 to assist Ph.D. and Pharm.D./Ph.D. students at the college. 

At his 2006 retirement dinner, several former students and colleagues shared memories of Jandhyala:

"He was instrumental in sowing the seeds of creative thinking in my mind. Above all, Baggie was not just another professor to me but also a great friend who taught me that science can be lots of fun." — Sharath Hedge, Ph.D. ('90), senior vice president of Research at Theravance Biopharma Inc.

"It was a wonderful experience because Baggie is very much an ‘out-of-the-box’ thinker, and he really made me sift through ideas and distinguish dogma from data." — Jui Shah, Ph.D. ('93), ‎health scientist administrator in the Division of AIDS at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

"He has been a great mentor to all of his graduate students, an outstanding teacher and an advocate for graduate students throughout his career at UH. We will definitely miss his wisdom and good sense of humor." — Mustafa Lokhandwala, Ph.D., professor of Pharmacology and executive vice dean for Research, UH College of Pharmacy

Deeply moved by the endowment and turnout at his retirement, Jandhyala observed: "Some of the fondest memories I have during my tenure in the college are related in one way or another to my interactions with the graduate, as well as professional pharmacy, students. Interacting with the young brains is a pleasure."

Jandhyala is survived by his wife, Marie, and their son, Murty. 

— by Chip Lambert