James E. Wynn Memorial Award

Lemke Honored with AACP Chemistry Section Award in Memory of Respected Pharmacy Educator, Scientist

UH College of Pharmacy Professor Emeritus Thomas L. Lemke, Ph.D., recently was honored with the James E. Wynn Memorial Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy's Chemistry Section at the AACP Annual Meeting July 23-27 in Anaheim, Calif.

The award is presented in the memory of the late respected pharmacy educator and scientist James E. Wynn, an accomplished researcher, innovative teacher and national leader in pharmacy education who passed in 2012. The recipient of more than 50 awards for teaching and co-inventor on more than 40 patents during his career, Wynn served as the chair of the Teachers of Chemistry Section and the Council of Faculties of the AACP as well as a member of the AACP Board of Directors.

"I feel very honored to have received this recognition in that Dr. Wynn was not only an outstanding educator, but also represented the type of person that we all would like to emulate as a teacher, leader, and role model to our students and future pharmacists," Lemke said. "I can only hope to have contributed to the development of individual pharmacists and to the profession as a whole through my 36 years of service to the college. I truly miss the excitement of being in the lecture room with young and energetic students."

Although Lemke retired from the college in 2006, he continues to be active in pharmacy education – including recently serving as the 2016 UH Rho Chi Society Robert L. Boblitt Lecturer – and within his field of medicinal chemistry. A teacher, researcher, scholar and administrator, Lemke played an integral role in shepherding in the Pharm.D. program at the college in the late 1990s and was highly regarded for his work in academic program assessment.

"I continue to attend AACP meetings because of friendships I have developed over my lifetime in pharmacy education," Lemke said. "This is the one time that I am able to see many of those who have been so important in my development as an educator and as a person. Involvement with AACP also allows me to remain aware of changes occurring in pharmacy education and the profession. The meetings have always served as an energizer and stimulator of ideas."

Lemke has served as author and editor of some of the most highly regarded tomes in medicinal chemistry, including the first through fifth editions of Review of Organic Function Groups: Introduction to Organic Medicinal Chemistry and fourth through seventh editions of Foye’s Principles of Medicinal Chemistry (with an eighth edition already under way). His most recent publication, Essentials of Foye’s Principles of Medicinal Chemistry, was published in June.