By Cole Strzelecki
Western New England University welcomes new members to its large faculty every year. This year’s group of new professors adds to the pharmacy and health sciences, engineering, computer science, and psychology programs offered at this University. These professors excitedly bring their expertise on their subjects to our University, prepared to share what they know with Western New England University students. One such professor is Shuhua Bai.
Bai is a professor of pharmaceutics with an impressive background. He earned a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Texas Tech University in 2008 and an MS in Medicinal Chemistry. He uses these degrees to teach students about various forms of pharmaceutical drugs and how they are delivered to those who need them.
“When dealing with these types of drugs, the problem that arises is how to safely deliver them to the police,” Bai explained. Bai said that Western New England University’s pharmacy program has samples of some of these drugs, but they are in the form of tablets. “Students need to know how to mix these into other forms, like patches or injection solutions. That’s where my pharmaceutics teaching comes in.”
Bai has done research centered on innovative patient-centric technologies and the enhancement of precision medicines to improve therapeutic effectiveness and patient compliance. He has received many awards, including the Maine IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence Summer Fellowship and the Meritorious Pharmaceutical Research Manuscript Award; he has received multiple grants from the NIH, the USDA, and other foundations; and he has been named a University Global Scholar. His work fits well with Western New England University’s focus on cutting-edge therapeutic research, thus making him a perfect addition to the pharmacy program.
This semester, Bai only teaches Pharmaceutics I, a 500-level pharmacy course. Despite this, he plans to make this course as helpful and impactful for his students as possible. That idea is what brought him to Western New England University in the first place.
“I worked in a similar program at the last school I taught at,” Bai said. Before coming to Western New England University, Bai was a professor at Husson University for fifteen years. “WNE’s program impressed me. It was well designed, and I feel it will prepare students for a good future as a pharmacist. I hope to contribute to that success.”
Bai’s goal as an instructor at Western New England University is to challenge students to learn existing ideas in the field of pharmaceutics and promote adapting and learning the use of any new technologies that arise in the future. “Students should do more than just accept knowledge from their professor,” he said. “Students need to apply the knowledge in the real world beyond school.”
But Bai plans to help students along the way to this point in their studies of pharmaceutics. “I want to communicate with students on both an academic and personal level. I want them to know I’m here for them,” he explained. Bai plans to find ways both inside the classroom and outside to connect with the students of the pharmaceutical program and act as a guiding light toward students’ desired future. “I want to support their growth and success in this field in as many ways and as often as possible.”
Professor Shuhua Bai’s past achievements and plans to grow the pharmaceutical program at our University bring much promise to the state of the program and the education students of this major will receive. With this in mind, Western New England University welcomes Bai with open arms.
