The USC College of Pharmacy has exceptional professors who are greatly invested in their careers and their students. The college also has professors who have unique talents outside of their profession.
Minou Khazan, clinical assistant professor in the department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences always had an affinity for science and knew she wanted to have a career in the medical field, but she also has another great passion - art.
Her father, who held a master’s degree in art, opened his own art gallery after retiring as a general in the Iranian Army in the late 1970s. As a teen, Khazan helped her father teach art classes and began painting on her own.
“I learned by watching him,” she recalls. “My aunt was also a sculptor. My ability developed more as I practiced.”
Khazan works in several media including watercolor, pencil sketches and oils. She took classes with noted South Carolina artist Roy Paschal.
“My strength is in oil painting. Watercolor is particularly challenging,” she notes.
Khazan also took part in the university’s mask design competition during the COVID-19 pandemic, winning first place among the faculty entrants.
While she paints for her own pleasure and has never sold one of her paintings, one of her works, was accepted for showing at the inaugural ArtFields exhibition in Lake City, South Carolina, the largest visual arts competition of its kind in the Southeast.
I can spend hours and hours painting and would not ever be bored, but I also love my job and the field of pharmacy ...
“I do it for myself,” she says. “I can spend hours and hours painting and would not ever be bored, but I also love my job and the field of pharmacy. I have been in every area of pharmacy from research and development to clinical to retail. I have always had a passion for finding answers.”
One of Khazan’s most recent works, “Out on the Horseshoe,” was commissioned by the College of Pharmacy for the upcoming Cocktails on the Horseshoe alumni event invitation. Guests at the event, set for March 30, will have the opportunity to take home a limited-edition print of “Out on the Horseshoe.” Tickets are available for purchase through March 23.
Topics: Faculty and Staff