Academy of Scholars inducts new members
Three new professors have been inducted into the Academy of Scholars, recognized by their peers for their outstanding achievements both within and without the university.
The Academy of Scholars is a community of esteemed faculty members dedicated to raising the academic prestige of the university and includes professors from across all disciplines.
Two of the electees belong to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: Tamara Bray and David Crich. The third member, Dora Apel, is an art history professor with the College of Fine Performing and Communication Arts.
Tamara Bray is a professor of anthropology, recognized nationally and internationally for her contributions to the study of Inca imperialism and the archaeology of food. She has over 25 years of field and research experience in Andean South America where she conducted significant research into long-distance trade, imperial frontiers, Inca architecture, and comparative studies of Inca ceramics and iconography in Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Peru and Bolivia. Dr. Bray has a strong record of publication in both Spanish and English. She is the author of several books and edited volumes, including most recently "The Archaeology of Wak'as: Explorations of the Sacred in the Pre-Columbian Andes" (University Press of Colorado, 2015), as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters.
David Crich, the Carol and Paul Schaap professor of organic chemistry at WSU was born and raised in Chesterfield, UK. Crich and his group are broadly interested in synthetic organic methodology and its application to medicinal chemistry and drug development. Current emphases are on antibiotic design and glycochemistry, for which Crich has won many awards including the Corday-Morgan and Haworth medals of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellowships from the AP Sloan Foundation and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, an AC Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS), the Emil Fischer Award of the European Carbohydrate Society, and the Wolfrom and Hudson Awards of the ACS Carbohydrate Division. He is currently serving a second term as a member of the NIH SBCA study section and is a co-founder and board member of the Swiss biotech start-up Juvabis GmbH.
With these appointments, the Academy has grown to include 58 active members; 80 members have been elected since its founding in 1979. Election to the Academy of Scholars is an arduous process, and those inducted have been bestowed the highest commendations possible by the university and their colleagues.