It is my pleasure to announce the appointment of Samuel Crish, Ph.D., as interim associate dean of pharmacy research for the College of Pharmacy, effective immediately. Dr. Crish will provide strategic leadership and guidance in the development and facilitation of faculty research and scholarship.
Dr. Crish has also been named the interim director of the Neurodegenerative Diseases and Aging Research Focus Area (RFA). He has worked intricately with the RFA since October 2017 as deputy director. Dr. Crish will continue to advance the strategic vision of the RFA working with faculty within the department and across the University with particular focus on Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, and glaucoma.
Dr. Crish first joined the College in August 2010 and came to us from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN, where he resided as a staff scientist in the Calkins Laboratory for Neurodegeneration. Dr. Crish obtained his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences (Neurobiology) at the University of Illinois and his Bachelor’s degree in Biology at Baldwin-Wallace College. He obtained additional training as a postdoctoral fellow in neuroscience and glaucoma at Vanderbilt University and the VU Medical Center. Dr. Crish was the first pharmacy faculty member to receive a major federal award from the NIH, an R01 - Axonopathy in Glaucoma - from the National Eye Institute. He has also received research funding from the Michael J. Fox Foundation and Fight for Sight, Inc. He is an invited speaker; contributor to book chapters, review and commentaries and editorials; and has numerous peer-reviewed publications.
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Crish in these new roles.
Richard Kasmer, Pharm.D., J.D.
Dean, College of Pharmacy