2021 Unit Faculty Excellence Awardees

Schmid College faculty members Dr. Daniel Alpay and Dr. Elaine Schwartz are among the Chapman community who received the 2021 Unit Faculty Excellence Award. The Unit Faculty Excellence Award is presented to faculty members to recognize exceptional contributions in the areas of teaching and/or scholarly/creative activity and/or service to the university.

Professor Daniel Alpay, Ph.D., holds the Foster G. and Mary McGaw Professorship in Mathematical Sciences. His research interests are along five main directions, namely Schur analysis in the setting of slice-hyperholomorphic functions, infinite dimensional analysis and white noise space theory, linear systems and applications to wavelet filters and signal processing, functions of a bicomplex variable, and function theory on a compact Riemann surface. A number of the underlying projects are at the interface between mathematics, signal processing, and models for linear systems appearing in electrical engineering. The notions of positive definite function and of the associated reproducing kernel Hilbert space play an important role in these various directions of research. He is currently serving on the conference committee for the 2021 International Workshop on Operator Theory and its Applications (IWOTA) conference scheduled for August 2021. This annual conference brings together mathematicians and engineers from around the world who work in functional analysis and its application to related areas.

Associate Professor and Assistant Dean of External Relations Elaine Schwartz, Ph.D. serves as the co-director of the biochemistry and chemistry program. Her research interest is in the discovery, pre-clinical, and clinical development of small molecules of medicinal importance. Synthesis and evaluation of analogs of gamma-carboxyethylhyroxychroman (CEHC) for the reversible inhibition of the apical 70 pS K+ channel in renal TAL and treatment of neuroinflammatory diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Pharmacologic studies of R-Flurbiprofen and other R-NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) for treatment of colon and prostate cancer and Alzheimer’s Disease. Chiral control of branched fatty acid oxidation: prevention and treatment of obesity and related metabolic diseases. As Assistant Dean of External Relations, she works closely with the Schmid College career advisor to build industry partnerships for the college and connect our students with internship, research and job opportunities.

Congratulations Dr. Alpay and Dr. Schwartz!