Nicholas Bodor made an indelible mark on the UF College of Pharmacy during his tenure in the department of medicinal chemistry, and his achievements as a professor and scientist have earned him a spot among the newest members of the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame. Bodor, Ph.D., D.Sc., will be among eight inductees honored this fall at the Seventh Annual Florida Inventors Hall of Fame Ceremony and Gala in Tampa. The Hall of Fame celebrates inventors whose achievements have advanced Floridians’ quality of life and impacted the nation.

As the founder and CEO of Bodor Laboratories in Miami and a graduate research professor emeritus in the UF College of Pharmacy, Bodor has earned international recognition as a leader in drug discovery, design and delivery. He invented revolutionary retrometabolic drug design concepts that have improved the ratio of therapeutic effect and safety of medication. He is an elected fellow in four learned societies and named inventor on more than 160 U.S. patents and over 100 patents worldwide.

Bodor joined the UF College of Pharmacy in 1979 as professor and chair of the department of medicinal chemistry. He was promoted to graduate research professor in 1983 and founded the college’s Center for Drug Discovery in 1986. During his tenure at UF, he supervised the training of more than 50 doctoral students and over 100 postdoctoral research associates and fellows. He took a leave of absence from his academic position in 2000 to accept an appointment at the IVAX Corporation.

In an emeritus role, Bodor has remained an active part of the UF College of Pharmacy. He helped establish a distinguished professorship named the Nicholas Bodor Professor in Drug Discovery in 2007 and the University of Florida named a lectureship series in his honor in 2019.