It’s almost a paradox when Sam Augustine, Pharm.D., says he wants to give something back to the university.
In mid 1980s, the radiopharmacy program at the College of pharmacy was eliminated because of curriculum changes and budgetary limitations, and Dr. Augustine decided to leave academia.
The university supplied resources to help Dr. Augustine take his work to the private sector. After several successful years as chief executive officer of Great Plains Radio Pharmacy and later as a business consultant, Dr. Augustine returned to the university on April 1, 1999.
“It may be no coincidence that it was April Fool’s Day,” Dr. Augustine jokes. “Coming back to the university was an opportunity for me to give back, to have an influence on the practice of pharmacy in the state of Nebraska. If I’m doing a good job is questionable.”
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Job Responsibilities: Works with pharmacy preceptors to provide quality clerkship training to pharmacy students in their fourth year of training. Teaches a compounding laboratory, a section on imaging agents in medicinal chemistry and teaches in the Pharmacy Law and Ethics course. Is the faculty adviser for the Academy of Students of Pharmacy and Phi Lambda Sigma student organization. Joined UNMC: 1973-1987, returned in 1999. One day I’d like to: Be a jockey, negotiate world peace, reach my ideal weight or height. Frankly, travel. Greatest personal achievement: I helped my wife raise three children. |
Others, however, answer easily that Dr. Augustine is doing a terrific job in his second tenure as a university professor. This month, he receives the Chancellor’s Gold ‘U’ Award, given each month to an employee who displays consistently outstanding performance and service to UNMC.
“He is one person who is happy to accommodate any request and has shown great enthusiasm to helping patients, students and his fellow friends and co-workers,” said Philip Bruch, who is administrator of radiation oncology and who nominated Dr. Augustine for the Gold ‘U’. “Sam’s expertise in Nuclear Pharmacy and other areas within the world of pharmaceutical sciences is outstanding, and UNMC and NHS should be proud to have someone of Sam’s background working here with our students, faculty and staff.”
Dr. Augustine has been an active scholar and educator in the areas of nuclear pharmacy, parenteral pharmaceutical formulations and extemporaneous compounding. He has authored one book chapter, 24 peer-reviewed publications and 9 professional publications. He has presented more than 40 reports of original research at national and international scientific professional meetings. He was also co-author of two important publications on the topic of quality assurance of pharmacy-prepared sterile parenteral products.
This past year, Dr. Augustine’s work has been recognized off-campus. The Nebraska Pharmacists Association and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals awarded him the Bowl of Hygeia Community Service Award and the American Pharmaceutical Association Academy of Pharmacy Practice and Management (AphA-APPM) honored him with the William H. Briner Distinguished Achievement Award in Nuclear Pharmacy Practice, and the APhA named him the Outstanding Academy of Students of Pharmacy (ASP) Chapter Advisor.
The students, he says, are now his products. He wants to see them do well, and he devotes hours to their development. Evidence of this is his willingness to spend three hours each Tuesday evening at the SHARING Clinic, where pharmacy students work alongside other health-care professional student to serve underserved people.
“There are some dedicated students who will change the practice of pharmacy, and the quality of care that patients receive will improve,” Dr. Augustine said. “I enjoy the university setting. There is always a stimulus to try new things and that is invigorating. There are very few days that I dislike coming to work.”