Darwin Srichapan

The Hoshi Sato Chair of Linguistics held by Darwin Srichapan is possibly the least prestigious professorship at Starfleet Academy. However your professorship, the Montgomery Scott Chair for Starship Engineering, much more respected. Ironically enough the disrespect for the Sato Chair is entirely because of the brilliance of its namesake. When just about every communication device has access to a universal translator language skills aren't as important as they were in Starfleet's early days. Regulations still require a communications officer to demonstrate competence in at least one alien language, but unless your ship gets stuck on the frontier there typically just isn't a lot of need for a first rate linguist on a California class ship. Darwin learned Vulcan on a dare and Andorian for a ski trip. His professors quickly realized that he was one of the most gifted natural linguists of his generation. And that recognition is how he got stuck with one of the worst jobs in the Federation... translating Cardassian records from the Occupation of Bajor. Nothing in the galaxy is more sobering than reading about the occupation of Bajor. And it gave him a revelation, one he waited to take action on until he was appointed to the Academy. The simple truth that the Prime Directive is a mess ethically. You swing by one of Darwin's lectures around the start of the semester. "The Communication Officer is the most thankless role in Starfleet, but in the right hands a good Comms officer can save just as many lives as a gifted tactician. Comms officer is just an old title going back to the first Starfleet vessels. A good modern Comms officer does less translation, but the work is just as essential. The role is about empathy and understanding, compassion and wisdom. A language informs how people think about ten thousand things and understanding that means heading off miscommunications that the old Universal Translator can miss completely." Contemporary with Lower Decks/Prodigy.