Pharmacy Education Symposium 2009

Associate Professor Zubin Austin

Zubin Austin is Associate Professor in Pharmacy at the Leslie Dan faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, Canada. Zubin’s research interests include professional development, teaching, learning and assessment in the health professions.

Zubin has published and presented extensively, nationally and internationally. He is also co-investigator in the IMPACT (Integrating family Medicine and Pharmacy to Advance primary Care Therapeutics) project, a primary care reform initiative involving development of an interprofessional clinical simulation.

He is a recipient of the Bristol Myers Squibb National Award for Excellence in Pharmaceutical Education, and the inaugural holder of the Ontario faculty of Pharmacists (OCP) Professorship in Pharmacy Practice. He is a multi-award winning educator and researcher, with his research in pharmacy education widely cited.

Within the pharmacy community, Zubin is widely recognised for his work in improving the quality of teaching at all levels. He has worked closely with the OCP, the Ontario Pharmacists Association, the Canadian Pharmacists’ Association and the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists in developing programs to improve the quality of clinical teaching of pharmacy students and enhance the provision of patient care by pharmacists.

Zubin’s education and instructional design innovations have been adopted worldwide. As Principal Investigator in the International Pharmacy Graduate (IPG) Program, he led development of one of the first bridging-education programs for internationally educated health professionals seeking licensure in Canada. He has developed reflective self-assessment instruments such as the Pharmacists’ Inventory of Learning Styles (PILS) and has also begun work in the area of interprofessional education.

Throughout his academic career Zubin has demonstrated his commitment to teaching, learning, and personal and professional development. As his own academic record indicates, he simply likes to learn. For Zubin, the greatest success a teacher can have is when students discover the pleasure of learning for themselves.